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)
„We have said that there are ascending and descending forces, forces ascending to the zodiac, forces descending from the zodiac. How did man come to be in such a position that something can flow up from him? What has happened to man so that something can flow up from him out of his being? He has come into this position because he has first been prepared for a long time and then has progressed further and further - his I. This I has been prepared for a long, long time. For basically all existence on the Saturnian state of the earth, on the Solar state and on the Lunar state, which had created the sheaths that were to receive the I, is preparation for the I. Other beings created the dwelling place for the I there. Now on earth the dwelling has been created to such an extent that the I could take hold in the human being, and from then on the I in the human being began to work the outer bodily shells from within. The fact that the I can work from within has at the same time had the effect that the excess, the measure of ascending and descending forces that goes beyond equality, has come into being. As long as the I was not yet able to work in man, the forces which are the ascending ones gradually developed to the centre; and when the I struck man, the forces were so far advanced that the ascending and the descending ones balanced each other out. The impact of the I in man means that the ascending and descending forces were in equilibrium, and it is up to man to tip the scales in the right way. That is why the occultists have called the constellation which was entered at the moment when it began to approach the I, the "Libra". Up to the end of Virgo, the deeds of the I were prepared in our planetary development, but they did not reach the I. Now, with the moment of the "balance", the I had entered the constellation. Now, with the moment of Libra, the I had begun to take its share itself, so that the I thereby brought about an important moment in its development.
Just think what it means that the I has reached this stage of development: from now on the I was allowed to participate in the forces belonging to the zodiac, it was allowed to work into the zodiac. It is quite true that the more the I strives for the highest point of its development, the more it works into the zodiac. Nothing happens in the innermost part of the I that does not draw its consequences up into the zodiac. That is quite true. And as the human being with his I as a human being actually lays the foundation for developing into his Atma or spiritual man, he develops more and more the forces which enable him to work up into the scales of the zodiac. He will attain his full power over this scale of the zodiac when he has pushed his ego through to the Atma or spiritual man. There he will be a being who emanates something that passes from the stage of time into the stage of duration, of eternity.
But as man goes his way in this way, there are other beings in whom what is, so to speak, the highest effect in man is the lowest effect. Let us now look for these beings in whom the lowest effect is just as much an effect as in man the scales in the zodiac. If we write down man in the zodiac, we have him reaching up to the scales. The entity whose actual nature belongs entirely to the zodiac, whose powers belong entirely to the zodiac, and which expresses itself in planetary life only in its lowest member, which is designated by the scales - as in man the lowest member is designated by the fish - is that entity which, as you see, spreads life over our whole world:
Just as man absorbs life, this entity radiates life over our whole world. This is the entity that is able to make the great sacrifice and is inscribed in the zodiac as the entity that sacrifices itself for our world. As man strives up into the zodiac, so this entity from Aries, which belongs to it as Libra does to man, sends us its offering. And as man turns his ego up to the scales, so this entity pours its being over our sphere as a sacrifice. This entity is therefore called the sacrificing „Mystical Lamb", for lamb is the same as ram; hence the designation of the sacrificing lamb or ram for Christ. Christ is now thus characterised to you as belonging to the whole cosmos. His I strives up to Aries; and if the I flows up to Aries, he thereby becomes the "Great Sacrifice" himself and thus stands in a relationship with the whole of humanity, and in a certain way these entities and forces that are on earth are his creations. His whole being is in the sun and his creations are connected with the moon and the earth, and his power lies in the constellation of the lamb. Thus the powers that he could become creator of these beings lie in the constellation of Aries or Lamb. From heaven itself is brought down the designation of the ‚Sacrificial Lamb' or the ‚Mystical Lamb'.“ (Lit.:GA 102, p. 40ff)
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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