Luciferic Temptation

Rudolf Steiner: Yahweh and the Luciferic Temptation, pastel on paper (1914)

The Luciferic temptation approached man in Lemurian times and he was thereby drawn into the Fall and expelled from Paradise. It is not possible to speak of an individual guilt of man, because human individuality was only germinated at that time, but not yet further developed, and Lucifer was a superior spiritual being. The compensation for the Fall of Man, the healing from its consequences, could therefore only be brought about through the grace of an even higher spiritual being: through the Christ, who went for man's salvation through the Mystery of Golgotha. Beyond that, however, the Fall was also the indispensable prerequisite for man to acquire freedom on Earth and thus also love. For the bearer of love can only be a being that is able to give itself away out of freedom. In this sense, man is the anthropos, literally the one turned against, who opposes or turns away from the gods in order to be able to reconnect with them as a completely independent being out of freedom and love.

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Die Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß, GA 13 (1968), Kapitel Die Weltentwickelung und der Mensch English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Geisteswissenschaftliche Menschenkunde, GA 107 (1988), Zehnter Vortrag, Berlin, 8. Dezember 1908 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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