Anger

Anger (Latin: Ira) or wrath is a state of momentary emotional excitement associated with strong antipathy, which arises from thesentient soul in which the I has not yet awakened to full self-consciousness. According to Roman Catholic doctrine, anger - Ira - is one of the seven main vices (which are also wrongly called the seven deadly sins). Rage, also called frenzy or fury (Latin: furor "frenzy, passion, madness"; French: rage) is a more persistent and difficult to control form of anger.

Anger is due to the Luciferian influence. It increases the sense of self. Only in this way can the I awaken to free consciousness of itself. Anger purified by the I is transformed into love and mildness.

„Both sides of the I are brought to development through anger. Anger has the mission of making self-ascension arise in us, and at the same time this self-ascension is transformed into selflessness. Anger, which burns itself into the soul, is a poison, that is, something that has a dampening effect on the self-ascension of the I. Thus anger is in fact a poison. Anger is indeed something that has a mission according to these two sides of human education, and we see how it becomes the forerunner of our independence and selflessness as long as the I cannot intervene in its own education. We would melt away if everything around us remained indifferent to us, if we were not yet able to make a calm judgement. We would not become selfless, but dependent in a bad sense, without egoity, if, before we have developed our I to a clear, luminous judgement, we cannot make ourselves independent through anger, where the outer world is not appropriate to our own inner being. Overcome anger, purified anger transforms itself into love and mildness.“ (Lit.:GA 58, p. 68f)

A good understanding of the development of anger and its transformation into love can be gained from the Greek tragedy of Aeschylus "Prometheus Bound".

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Metamorphosen des Seelenlebens – Pfade der Seelenerlebnisse. Erster Teil, GA 58 (1984) English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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