Mystical Lamb
In the imagery of the Apocalypse of John, the Christ is also called the Mystical Lamb or Lamb of God. It is symbolically represented as a heptagram.
„They know that the sun once separated from the earth, but that in the distant future it will reunite with the earth. The being which enables men to spiritualise themselves in such a way that they can reunite with the sun is called in occultism the intelligence of the sun. This good sun-spirit is counteracted by an evil one, the demonium of the sun [→ Sorat]. Both forces not only work in the sun, but they send their effects down to earth. The forces of the good sun-spirit move into plant, animal and human beings, they call forth life on earth. The opposing principle of the sun demon, that force which opposes the union of the earth with the sun, works in the evil forces of man.
Since ancient times there have been occult symbols for this. A seven-cornered sign is the symbol for the good spirit of the sun. The seven corners symbolically denote the seven planets. The pentagram is the symbol for the human being. The occultist draws the stars in the shape of seven eyes in the figure [of the heptagram]. Surrounded by a line, the forces are all intertwined. They bind everything together. This is also drawn by the occultists in the days of the week. If you follow this line, you have the names of the days of the week going in the direction of the line.
In the ancient past, time could not yet be measured externally by the way the sun revolved around the earth. The old occultists thought of special regents for the revolution of the sun, and they also thought of the right thing. The whole system revolves, and so time was determined according to the orbit by the twelve signs of the zodiac, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, and so on. Now you know that in the development of a world system a revolution is called a Manvantara, that it is followed by a Pralaya as a state of rest, and that such states alternate like day and night. Therefore the day has twelve hours and the night has twelve hours. These twelve hours correspond to the great periods of the world-day, which are regulated by the ancient rulers of the circuit of the zodiac. Twenty-four lords of the circuit I would have to record around this sign. If I were to draw this for you, you would have the septagram here. You would then have here the seven eyes, which signify the seven stars, and the twenty-four ancient rulers, twelve for the day and twelve for the night.
The good spirit of the sun is also called the lamb. We have already spoken of the pentagram as the symbol of man. The black magician uses the pentagram in such a way that the two "horns" go upwards and one, the tip, goes downwards. After the completion of this development, the good have then developed seven "horns". This is the sign of the Christ-Spirit.
Read the passage where John receives the book with the seven seals, with this occult knowledge. Let's read it as it is described in the fourth chapter of Revelation. "And immediately I was in the Spirit. And, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and upon the throne sat one; and he that sat was like unto the stone of jasper and sardius.... And round about the chair were twenty and four chairs, and upon the chairs sat twenty and four elders" - which I have set before you in the twenty and four hours of the world day - day and night. And then what is further found in the fifth chapter. "And I looked, and, behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent into all the earth." - This occult sign underlies John's reference in the Apocalypse to the mysteries of the world's existence. Only those who know these can guess how profound a book the Apocalypse is and what it means when the Lamb's adversary is described as the beast with two horns [→ Sorat].“ (Lit.:GA 96, p. 313ff)
Literature
- Rudolf Steiner: Ursprungsimpulse der Geisteswissenschaft, GA 96 (1989), Berlin, 27. April 1907 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Das Hereinwirken geistiger Wesenheiten in den Menschen, GA 102 (2001), ISBN 3-7274-1020-5 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
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