Seraphim

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Six-winged Seraph, Hagia Sophia
Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), The Legend of Saint Franciscus: Stigmatisation by a Seraphim; Basilica of Assisi.

The Seraphim (Hebrew: שְׂרָפִים śərāfîm, singular שָׂרָף śārāf; Latin: seraphi[m], singular seraph[us]; Greek: σεραφείμ "kindler"[1]), also called Spirits of All-Love, are, as the highest of the spiritual hierarchies, exalted spiritual entities who have the immediate sight of the Godhead and never act out of themselves, but are faithful executors of the divine will. Their Hebrew designation as the burning ones is also commonly used in the Tanakh for serpents (Hebrew: שָׂרָ֔ף sarap).[2]

In Isaiah 6:1–7 the Seraphim are described as fiery, six-winged angelic beings hovering around the Throne of God and continually calling out to each other "Holy, holy, holy". Similarly, the depiction in the Apocalypse of John 4:1–11. From the Trinity the Seraphim receive the goals sought in the development of a planetary systems (Lit.:GA 110, p. 81) and they at the same time provide the link to other developing planetary systems (Lit.:GA 136, p. 93f). Together with the Cherubim and Thrones they form the first hierarchy, whose physical expression is the zodiac. They are usually depicted as six-winged human-like beings, sometimes as if they consisted only of wings at all, from which a human face shines forth, as for example in the dome of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Often the wings have eyes inside and outside (Rev 4:8) and often two wings cover the feet and two the face.

The Nature of the Seraphim

The Seraphim are at the apex of the Hierarchies and their essence embraces the whole world and this also determines the particular nature of their consciousness:

„One would have characterised the Seraphim as entities in whom there is not subject and object, but in whom subject and object coincide, who would not say: Apart from me are objects -, but: The world is, and I am the world, and the world is I -; who know precisely only of themselves, and in such a way that these entities, these Seraphim, know of themselves through an experience of which man has a faint afterglow when he has, well, let us say, the experience which throws him into a fervent enthusiasm.“ (Lit.:GA 233a, p. 13)

„The first entities which are around the Godhead itself, so to speak, which, as it has been beautifully expressed in Christian occidental esotericism, "directly enjoy the sight of God", these are the Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. They now receive the plans of a new world system from the divine Trinity from which they spring. It is, of course, you understand, my dear friends, more figurative than real, for we have to express with human words such sublime activities for which human words are truly not made. Human words are not there to express such lofty activity by which, for example, at the beginning of our solar system, the Seraphim received the supreme plans of the Divine Trinity which contain how our solar system is to evolve through Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. Seraphim is a name which has always been interpreted by all those who have understood it correctly in the sense of the old Hebrew esotericism itself, in such a way that the Seraphim have the task of receiving the highest ideas, the goals of a world system from the Trinity. The Cherubim, the next lower level of the Hierarchy, have the task of expanding in wisdom the goals, the ideas, which are received from the highest Gods. The cherubim are therefore spirits of the highest wisdom, who know how to translate into practicable plans that which is indicated to them by the Seraphim. And the thrones in turn, the third degree of the Hierarchy from above, have the task now, very figuratively speaking of course, of laying hands, so that what has been thought out in wisdom, so that these lofty world-thoughts which the Seraphim receive from the gods, which the Cherubim have thought through, may be put into reality.“ (Lit.:GA 110, p. 81)

„It would only be possible to get an idea of the impression which the Seraphim make on the occult gaze if we took the following comparison from life. We continue the comparison we have just used. We look at a man who, through decades, has accumulated experiences which have brought him to overwhelming wisdom, and we imagine that such a wise man, from whom the most impersonal wisdom of life speaks, out of his most impersonal wisdom of life so pervades his whole being as with inner fire, that he does not need to tell us anything, but only needs to stand before us and put into his gaze what decades of wisdom have given him, so that the gaze can tell us about the sufferings and experiences of decades and we can have an impression from the gaze that this gaze speaks like the world itself, which we experience. When we imagine such a gaze, or when we imagine that such a wise man has come to tell us not only words, but to give us in the sound and in the peculiar colouring of his words the imprint of rich life experiences, so that we hear something like an undertone in what he says, because he endows it with a certain how, and we hear from this how a world of life experiences, then we again get a feeling like that of the occultist when he ascends to the Seraphim. Like a glance that has matured in life, and from which decades of experience speak, or like a sentence that is uttered in such a way that we do not merely hear its thoughts, but that we hear: the sentence, in being uttered with such a sound, has been won in pains and in experiences of life, it is not a theory, it has been fought for, it has been suffered, it has gone through battles of life and victories into the heart - when we hear all this through an undertone, then we get an idea of the impression which the trained occultist has when he soars up to the entities which we call Seraphim.“ (Lit.:GA 136, p. 81f)

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

  1. ↑ Dionysius Areopagita: Celestial Hierarchy. Translated from the Greek by Josef Stiglmayr. (Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, 1. Reihe, Band 2) Munich 1911, p. 32
  2. ↑ cf. https://bibeltext.com/hebrew/saraf_8314.htm
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