Awareness - Life - Form
GA 89
Part II: 5. The Logoi
Private instruction, Berlin-Schlachtensee, 2 July 1904
When we see something, we ask how it has come about, presupposing something else from which it has arisen. Only applicable to things that happen in the physical world. We have to presuppose something where we no longer ask whence it has arisen. That is the Logos. Nor should the question be put: when did the Logos arise, for saying that it [arose] earlier or later would impose limits on it. All notions of time cease to have meaning with regard to the Logos. What we are saying now about the Logos applies as it has applied countless millennia ago. The Logos is not in time but before all time.
We are going to develop some concepts.
If we refer to something which is absolute in itself, which does not have any of the things we know, as being beyond existence, we have established an abstract concept of what we think the Logos to be—absolute, established, complete, resting in itself. First Logos - sat - Father.
If this Logos is accepted on its own, it rests in itself, there and not there, beyond existence, never perceptible as it is beyond all perception, beyond existence. It follows that this Logos is the absolutely occult, hidden principle, being beyond all revelation. If it is not to be occult, it must reveal itself. We then have its mirror image, with Logos revealed. If we consider this we will immediately see that there at two concepts in this concept, and we thus have something threefold, for in the revealer there must be activity of self revelation:
| 1st Logos: | revealer |
| 2nd Logos: | revelation, activity |
| 3rd Logos: | mirror image revealed |
[Indian] sat, ananda, chit
[Christian] trinity of
1) Father
2) Son, Word
3) Holy Spirit
Initially these three are so sublime that for anything we call evident or perceptible in the ordinary sense we have to call them occult. Three occult principles, therefore. They must first of all be revealed. There are only three, and so they can only reveal themselves to one another:
The Father reveals himself to the Word, The Word reveals itself to the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit reveals itself back to the Father.
These are three ways of revelation. We think of them as applied to three principles, so that the activity of these three principles consists in that they take on the task of translating this. The three can enter into different relationships:
It is possible for the Father to hide in the Word, making himself known in this hidden state. The Father principle veils itself in the Word and reveals itself to the Spirit.
It is also possible for the Word to veil itself in the Holy Spirit and thus veiled reveal itself to the Father.
It is also possible for the Holy Spirit to veil itself in the Father and reveal itself to the Word.
The only remaining possibility is that the Father principle veils itself in both, Word and Spirit, and is revealed to itself.
What we have—1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th—we think of as existing in essence; this intrinsic quality, the [seven] relationships between the three Logoi, thus arises in seven essential forms.87Elsewhere also called ‘the seven unutterable secrets of life’; full description in Zur Geschichte ... (S. 241 ff.) note 86.
| 1st relationship - All Might | The Father principle reveals itself to the Word. |
| 2nd relationship - All Wisdom | The Word reveals itself to the Spirit. |
| 3rd relationship - All Love | The Holy Spirit reveals itself to the Father. |
| 4th relationship - All Justice | The Father principle veils itself in the Word and reveals itself to the Spirit. |
| 5th relationship - All Redemption | The Word veils itself in the Spirit and reveals itself to the Father. |
| 6th relationship - All Hallowing | The Holy Spirit veils itself in the Father principle and reveals itself to the Word. |
| 7th relationship - All Harmony | The Father principle veils itself in Word and Spirit and is revealed to itself. |
Thus the principles arose in mutual fructification. These are the seven rulers, the seven mights that stand before the throne [of God], and these are their qualities. The qualities arise from the relationships of the three Logoi. Only seven are possible.
All Might consists in the Father principle revealing itself to the Word. This is known as first creation, or chaos.
When All Might had done its work, All Wisdom reigned, ordering everything according to measure and number.
When All Wisdom had done its work, All Love reigned, bringing the element of sympathy and antipathy to the whole of creation.
When All Love had done its work, All Justice came; it reigned, bringing in karma, which means birth and death. When All Justice had done its work, All Redemption takes up its work, bringing redemption to everything, which is last judgement.
When the last judgement has done its work, All Hallowing will begin its work, and then All Harmony [bliss] will begin. Let us think of this spread among seven planets. In truth, all seven are present, but one of them always has the power (the others hold lesser offices).
If we take the fourth orb, it is ours. The device for us is therefore: The Father principle veils itself in the Word and reveals itself to the Spirit. And that is Christianity.
With this Cherub we have the key word and hence also the meaning of Christianity.
Miracle of Pentecost ...
All is made through the Word, which on the one side contains the Father in involution; hence John: [In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the Beginning with God. Through him Everything entered into existence and without him nothing entered into existence.’ Kalmia Bittlestone translation]
The task for the next planet, Mercury, 5) All Redemption—the Word veils itself in the Spirit and reveals itself to the Father. When the Word, the Christ, which is in our evolution, veils itself and reveals itself to the Father, it is the next...
Never will the Son be able to come to you but through me, Spirit. If it, Spirit, is to live, to be spread out, evolve, in the next planet, the Word must veil itself in Spirit.
The element, which will set the tone in the next planet, must be prepared for in this one. The Word must go into involution to prepare for the Holy Spirit. This, however, means death here. The mission can only be accomplished if the Word veils itself unto death, and that is the meaning of the death on the cross.
We have come so far as to understand that he was crucified to death ...
This is the meaning of the central Christian mystery. ... In the Bible, Jesus says: I do not go against the book of law in the meaning of Melchizedek.88Biblical name of manu, one of the highest initiates on Earth. In ancient Atlantis leader of the Sun oracle and founder of post- Atlantean civilization. See lectures given in Berlin on 15 February 1909 and Munich on 7 March 1909 in The Principle of Spiritual Economy GA 109, tr. P. Mollenhauer, Hudson: Anthroposophic Press 1986. Also lecture given in Berne on 4 September 1910 in The Gospel of St Matthew GA 123, tr. D. S. Osmond, M. Kirkaldy, London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1965. Melchizedek is the Angel of the Earth’s orbital period.
In the next planetary evolution, the Son will thus provide for the Father what he will then have gathered through the Spirit.
