Primordial Angels

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The Primordial Angels or Archai (from Greek: ἀρχή arché "beginning", "principle", "origin"), also called Primordial Forces, Primordial Beginnings, Principalities (Latin: principates) or Spirits of Personality, have already completed their humanity stage on Old Saturn. Thus they stand three levels above man in the ranking of spiritual hierarchies. They act through the sphere of Venus. In Gnosis they are called Aeons and as Spirits of Cycles of Time they regulate all rhythmically ordered natural processes. In their totality they form the astral body of the Earth. As Spirits of Time (German: Zeitgeister) they work in association with the conscious development of mankind.

Spirits of light and spirits of darkness

In Genesis, the regularly evolved primal angels are called Jom (Hebrew: יום "day"), who, as servants of the Elohim (givers of form ), weave in the light and can therefore be conceived as Spirits of Light.

They are joined by the Spirits of Darkness or Spirits of Night, termed Laj'lah (Hebrew: לילה "night"), as necessary companions. These are primal angels a little slow in their development, since they have retained certain characteristics from their Old Saturnian existence, which unfolded with no light and the whole world immersed in darkness. The primary tasks of the Laj'lah are observed working during sleep at night. Then vital forces of maintenance, on the physical and etheric planes of the body are active and are busy repairing the damage often inflicted by our everyday consciousness.

As Asuras (Sanskrit, m., असुर, asura, demon, evil spirit), however, the spirits of darkness can assume a role as worst adversaries to humanity. In Hinduism, they are considered demons and "opponents to the gods," the devas or suras, and children of the night goddess Diti. They are the actual Spirits of Egoism, of selfishness, and do their work in the unconscious part of the soul, which takes shape through the unconscious transformation of the physical body, and at the same time they attack the human self.

„107“ (Lit.:GA 248)

„If we want to understand the position of the spiritual evolutionary principle, we must note a significant occurrence at the time of the Atlantean root race (original beginnings) . Those who in the beginning were [wise] spiritual beings, suddenly appeared as the permanently outraged, the rebels who now wanted to win their own independence. Suras (light beings) now became 'a-suras' (dark beings) ; until that time they were latent on earth. They are those powers which in our current epoch often appear representing the intellectual and spiritual side of humanity.“ (Lit.:GA 89125)

Aeons

The essential Aeons, often spoken of in Gnosticism, belong to the hierarchy of the Primordial Angels.

„I would first like to direct your attention to an old teaching, which is present in the sense of the Gnostics. There they spoke of powers which participate in the development of our existence, as they successively intervene in the development of our existence. These entities and powers are called Aeons. One refers to the Aeons in the sense of the Gnostics. With these Aeons we do not mean periods of time, but (living) entities. 'Successively' means that after a first Aeon has worked and accomplished its tasks, a second one takes over with its powers, who in turn is replaced by a third one and so on. When the Gnostics spoke of Aeons they meant such successive, mutually replacing entities, which guide the development. The purely abstracting concept of time appeared only very late which we find connected with the word Aeon today, cut off from its original meaning. Aeon denotes entities beingness, living beingness. And in the same sense of living beingness, namely Aeon, we find that what is called 'jom' in Hebrew. That is why one is not merely dealing with an abstract time determination, but with a living being. Jom is an entity. And if one has to do with seven successive 'joms' known as jamim, then one has to do with seven mutually superseding entities or, in my understanding, groups of entities.“ (Lit.:GA 122, p. 90f)

== Spirits of Cycles of Time


The Spirits of Cycles of Time (orbital periods), belonging to the hierarchy of the Primordial Angels, direct the elemental beings and all rhythmically ordered natural processes. They govern the alternation of day and night, the change of seasons, and all those rhythmic processes by which a very specific typical life span is assigned to individual animal species. In a nutshell, all that we denote as "natural law" is an effect of the spirits of the cycles of time, whilst the forces of nature represent the external expressions of the activity of the elemental beings.

Spirits of Time and cultural epochs (Zeitgeister)

→ Main article: Spirits of Time

As spirits ruling over the, the Archai guide and govern the development of humanity by taking over the spiritual leadership of the individual cultural epochs. As such they regulate the relationships of the various culture-bearing peoples of the world and their folk spirits in relation to each other. The duration of the individual culture epochs is determined by cosmic conditions/cycles and corresponds in each case to 1/12 of the Platonic world year (= 2160 years). Our present post-Atlantean era is divided into seven such. At present we pass through the 5th post-Atlantean epochs of cultural development.

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.
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