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"<ref>Dionysius Areopagita: Himmlische Hierarchie. Aus dem Griechischen übersetzt von Josef Stiglmayr. (Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, 1. Reihe, Band 2) München 1911, S. 32), 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 "Evolution from the Viewpoint of the 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).

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

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