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The Apocalypse of St. John
GA 104

29 June 1908, Nuremberg

Lecture XI

We have followed the evolution of our earth so far that we have seen how, after various important events which are described by the opening of the seven seals and the sounding of the seven trumpets, in the future the earth with all its beings will pass into a kind of spiritual condition, with the exception of those who refuse to receive the Christ-principle; this refusal we have to understand as a malevolent and unintelligent spiritual opposition energetically exercised. Of course, when the earth has taken on its astral, its spiritual form, these beings too will be unable to exist in a dense material form—shall we say—in earthly substance; in the epoch following after the sounding of the trumpets, the epoch characterized by the outpouring of the vials of wrath, they will also pass over into astral forms. But the lower nature they will have acquired through not having accepted the Christ-principle will be expressed in the astral by their having essentially the animal form we have characterized, with the seven heads and ten horns. Now from all that has been said you will be able to gather what the relation is between what we call “heads” and what we call “horns”; but in connection with this the question may arise in your mind: Why is it that just certain organs which appear is the physical body are called “horns”? Why does one designate as horns the physical organs and their vestiges in the astral when the earth shall have become astral? It can easily be understood that those who have not taken up the principle of Christ must fall back again into the condition in which man was before he could partake of the Christ-principle. Man was formerly a non-individual being with a group-soul; and we have seen that during the first four ages of the Atlantean epoch he was furnished with the group-souls which are correctly symbolized by the lion, bull, eagle and human heads, but the last must be conceived of as an animal human head. We must imagine that when man reappears in the spiritualized earth and has failed to take in the Christ-principle during our epoch, he will then again appear in the old form, because he has contributed nothing towards the highest development of his previous group-soul nature; and not only in this form but with three heads more, which were added during the ages. Before the great flood of Atlantis three further ages followed after the first four.

In these three ages those who later received the Christ-principle had in a certain way the possibility of taking up three further group-soul heads; but they have transformed them, they have raised the animal nature in man to a higher stage. They will appear in a spiritualized form when the earth is spiritualized. The others, who have rejected the Christ-principle, will appear with seven heads, because there were before the flood seven ages during which the animal nature was developed. And because in the last three Atlantean ages there was bi-sexuality in contra-distinction to the first four, each head, so to speak, appears with two possibilities towards the animal nature, with male and female possibilities, so that in these three later ages each head appears with two horns; that is man with ten horns altogether. Some one might now say, “I quite understand that those who do not work upon themselves so as to strip off the form which they have and lift it up to the human, will reappear in the animal form; but I do not understand why horns are spoken of! It is quite comprehensible when heads are spoken of, but why horns?” I will now explain why one not only speaks of horns, but must speak of them. The expression is not merely to be understood symbolically, it is reality. Those who fail to take up the Christ-principle into themselves will actually appear in astral form also, but because they have so shaped their instincts that they have held fast, so to speak, to the animal group-soul, the corresponding instincts appear in the astral body which men will then have, in the form of horny protuberances. It is an actual form.

I will explain by means of a single organ how it comes about that the man who does not receive the Christ-principle will actually appear with horns when the earth has become spiritualized. Take the organ of the human larynx and the windpipe. You are continually breathing air in and out through this wind-pipe. This is an activity which man exercises. In a person who spiritualizes himself, this activity is in the service of the spiritual; but in one who does not incline towards the Christ-principle it takes on the character of the old forces belonging to the seven heads. Suppose we illustrate it in this way:

The air continually passes in through the larynx from outside. But you know that the astral body of man surrounds him. The stream of air which passes in will always be in connection with the astral. Now when the earth is spiritualized it can be seen whether the breathing of a man was the servant of the Christ-principle or the servant of the lower forces already in the world before the Christ-principle. If it was the servant of the Christ-principle it loses the form adapted to the present body. Man himself has the power to transform everything which is astral into a higher spiritualized form. If he does not take up the Christ-principle he is unable to draw out of this fleshly form that which is suited to it, and the consequence is that after the fleshly form has fallen away and disappeared, after the physical larynx has gone, this form of the astral body remains, which always comes into the larynx with the breath. This form remains in the shape of a horn. Wherever the external astral forces go in and out of man they remain adapted to the preceding animal form when man passes over into the astral form, that is, he then appears with true astral horns; these are actual astral shapes. They correspond exactly to the penetration of the astral substantiality during the earth life. These pictures do not present random symbols, they present the true form of what will one day appear. This must be clearly understood.

Let us now determine our present position in evolution in accordance with what we have already considered, in accordance with that somewhat uncongenial diagram of many numbers. We now clearly understand that the forty-nine great transformations of Saturn have passed away, the seven conditions of life belonging to Saturn (which in theosophical books are also called rounds), each with its seven conditions of form (globes); and that, further, the forty-nine corresponding Sun-conditions and the forty-nine Moon-conditions have also passed away. Man has so far passed through these 147 conditions in his earlier evolution. Added to these now come the conditions which man has already passed through during our Earth period. The first three conditions of life, which are also called the first three rounds, are behind us, and we are now living in the fourth condition of life, in the fourth round. Now as each of these rounds includes its seven conditions of form, we have completed 3 x 7 conditions during the first three earth-rounds; therefore to the 147 we must add another twenty-one. We have not yet completed the fourth condition of life, but part of it is behind us; we have finished the first three conditions of form, the almost formless spiritual conditions, the arupa, the rupa and the astral conditions, and are now in the physical. So to the 147 plus twenty-one we must add three more. Thus we have completed 171 conditions of form out of the 343 of the seven planets. You must particularly bear in mind that we are now in the 172nd condition of form, which is the physical earth. During this 172nd condition all that we have described has taken place. When this condition began, the earth was united with sun and moon. During this condition the sun and moon withdrew, and after these events man appeared as he now is upon the physical earth. Then began the Atlantean epoch, of which we have spoken. We have also said that we must again divide this condition of form, which is the 172nd, into seven epochs. The first lies in the far distant past. When it began the sun was still united with the earth. Somewhat figuratively we have grown accustomed to call this epoch the Polarian human race. It is difficult to form any idea of this epoch. Then during the withdrawal of the sun comes the race of the Hyperboreans; then, during the exit of the moon, a third, the so-called Lemurian human race. The fourth epoch within the 172nd condition of form is the Atlantean race. The fifth is the one in which we are living. Following the fourth was the great Atlantean flood. After our own will follow the epoch expressed in the Apocalypse of John by the seven seals; and then comes the one typified by the seven trumpets.

Now we know that each of these seven epochs is again divided into seven ages. Our own epoch, the fifth within the 172nd condition of form, is divided into the ancient Indian age of civilization, the ancient Persian, the Assyrian-Babylonian-Chaldean-Egyptian-Jewish, the Graeco-Latin, our own, a sixth and then a seventh age of civilization. Then follows the great War of All against All. The succeeding epoch is again divided into seven parts, expressed by the seven seals; and the epoch expressed by the seven trumpets is again divided into seven parts. If you now consider that 171 conditions of form will be added to those that have already passed away, you will have 342. One more added to this gives 343 in all; but we are living in this one, it stands in the middle. Some one might now say: “It is really a very wonderful thing that we have the good fortune to be living exactly in the middle of evolution.” This must indeed seem a curious fact to those who do not reflect further upon it, that we are living in the middle of evolution! But to one who understands the whole matter it is by no means strange. It is no more wonderful than if some one, standing in an open field in level country where he sees equally far behind and in front, finds himself in the middle of the field of vision. If he goes some distance further, he again sees equally far behind and in front. There would be entirely different conditions in evolution if we were to take our stand at another point. We are always in the middle. Man can always see equally far behind him and before him, even with the highest spiritual vision. Something else might perhaps strike one. Some one might say: “How is it that you do not say that we are exactly in the middle in other respects? For now it is no longer the case. We are in the 172nd condition of form. The exact middle would be in the fourth epoch of this, but we are now in the fifth, that is, somewhat beyond the middle. This does not exactly agree with the statement that we are actually in the middle.” Underlying this there is a remarkable fact, you may understand it by a comparison. If you comprehend this clearly, you will see that it is an important fact. It is really the case that in regard to the great main conditions we are in the middle; but in regard to the conditions which concern us immediately, we stand somewhat beyond the middle. Why is this? Imagine you are travelling through a very level country in a special railway carriage from which you can have a clear view in every direction. Suppose you are able to do this for some length of time. You have a perfectly clear view, and if at any one point in your journey you could rapidly make a sketch of the whole of the surroundings, this picture would be absolutely circular. There is only one case in which this would not be so. Imagine you are sitting in the rapidly moving train and you note the picture you see. At this moment you fall asleep and travel for a time while sleeping. During this time you are unaware of the way in which the picture is changing. You awake. Imagine that at this moment the picture you saw on going to sleep again quickly arises. It does not now agree. The reason is that you have been asleep for a certain length of time. Your picture does not now coincide with the view which is equal in every direction, for there is in addition the part you have slept through.

Let us now ask: “Is it perhaps the case that man has slept from the middle of his evolution up to our age?” It might be explicable to us that the picture would have to agree up to that point. Now, as we have come beyond the middle, it would be possible, if we have slept, that the picture may have altered a little. Has man been asleep? In the occult sense humanity has been asleep since the middle of the Atlantean epoch, because that was the time when the whole human race, as such, lost the ancient dim spiritual vision. From the spiritual point of view man sank as if into a state of sleep. He began to turn his attention to the sense world, and thus, from the point of view of the spiritual world, to pass into a state of sleep; and only when he has regained the higher vision will he have a free view, so to speak, in every direction. There will then no longer be this disarrangement of evolution, there will be the same distance behind and in front. Since the middle of the Atlantean epoch man has, in fact, been asleep, by reason of his being unable normally to participate in the sight of the spiritual worlds if we leave Initiates out of account—somnambulists also, if you will—we have to say that man does not see; for seeing means really to look into the world. As regards the spiritual world humanity is asleep, and it will continue to sleep for a time. For the period since the Atlantean epoch the statement of John's Gospel holds good: “The light shone into the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.”

Thus in this division there is hidden an important truth, the truth that humanity is living in a dark age, the age of darkness, and the Christ-principle has come in this age in order that humanity might be led forth into the age of light. For this reason it was correct to put the present position of evolution not in the middle, but beyond the middle, because in Atlantis begins the dark age which will continue into our sixth age, when the elect appear in white garments, when they appear as the first of those who are again able, under ordinary normal conditions, to have the spiritual world around them and the age of darkness will have passed away. Then appears the age of which it must be said, “The light shines in darkness and the darkness comprehends the light.“ For this reason the dark age will also be called the time when man directs his gaze only to the physically material world in the normal condition and does not see the spiritual world behind it. We shall now connect this with what has already been said regarding evolution. When evolution has progressed beyond the seventh epoch, beyond the epoch indicated by the sounding of the trumpets, the earth then spiritualizes itself and passes over first into the astral, then into the lower devachanic and finally into the higher devachanic condition. Afterwards it returns to the same conditions by condensing more and more from the finest spiritual; and the condition comes which usually is described as the fifth round, which again will have seven conditions of form, and in the middle will again pass through a development of what must be characterized as seven successive epochs, or, shall we say, race conditions.

Now let us, even if it be somewhat difficult, look a little more deeply into the following conditions of our earth evolution. Let us turn our gaze to a quite definite point in our future evolution just as we have been considering the present stage. Let us start with our present, namely the 172nd condition. Prior to this 172nd condition the Earth had already completed three sub-conditions; the 172nd condition is the Earth itself. Three have already been completed and it is now in the fourth of these conditions. First, however, we are considering only the conditions of form. We reckon that we are in the fourth condition of life or fourth round. Granted this is so and we say: In this fourth condition of life or round we have already passed through three conditions of form and are now in the fourth. Now we ask further how many of the sub-conditions have we passed through? The first, second, third and fourth. The last was the Atlantean epoch. This is now completed. We have passed through four conditions and are now in the fifth, the post-Atlantean. Of this fifth epoch we have again passed through four sub-conditions, namely, the ancient Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egyptian and the Graeco-Latin, and are now in the fifth age. So that we can say: before our immediate present stage of evolution we have completed 344 conditions. These 344 conditions which we have completed are described is Apocalyptic language as the number of evolution. When, therefore, it is asked: What is the number of evolution, our evolution, the answer is 344. This is not read according to the system of ten, but according to the system of seven. Three conditions (out of the seven) have been gone through, and four conditions (out of the next smaller seven) have been gone through, four conditions (out of again the next smaller seven). That is what is really meant by the 3-4-4. One must not simply read it like other numbers, but it contains, written side by side, the number of stages passed through.

When the earth is spiritualized and has developed to its next conditions, then more and more stages will have been gone through. And the time will come, when six conditions of the first kind, six of the second and six of the third will have been passed through. Just as we now have the 344 as the number of evolution, in the future when six conditions of life, six root-races and six sub-races have been gone through, the number 666 (six six six) will apply, read in the manner above described, which is the method used by the writer of the Apocalypse. Thus a time will come when the number 666 is the number of evolution. This will only be in a very distant future, but this future is already being prepared at the present time. Three great main conditions have been completed and we are now living in the fourth. But when we have reached the great War of All against All, and the epoch indicated by the seven seals has passed away, we shall have gone through six of the middle kind. When the first trumpet sounds we shall have passed through six such main races, and when the first six trumpets are over, we shall have experienced 66. By then humanity will have had opportunity to prepare for the terrible time which will follow much later, when not only 66 but 666 will be reached. All that lies in the future is already being prepared now. The time following the War of All against All, the time after the seventh trumpet is sounded, will see men who, through excluding themselves from the Christ-principle, will have attained a high degree of evil, of the tendency to sink into the abyss. By then these men will have sunk so low that when the point of time 666 comes they will be able to descend very low into evil, into the abyss of evil. Men will have taken into themselves, already in the period after the great War of All against All, when the seventh trumpet sounds, the germs of this descent into the abyss in the far-distant future. It will, indeed, for a long time be possible for those who have taken these germs into themselves to turn round and be converted, to tarn back in their development in order even then to receive the Christ-principle. But the first predisposition will have been formed, and those who retain this tendency will no longer be able—when that distant future has come which is indicated not by 466, but by 666—to change this tendency into good. They will succumb to the frightful fate of which we have still to speak.

Thus we see that with this number six, whether it is simply six, or six six, or six six six, there is connected something bad for human evolution. We are now living in the fifth main period and the fifth sub-period. After the great War we shall pass into the sixth epoch; but before the great War there comes, immediately after our fifth age, the sixth age, described as the community of Philadelphia. We know that we are now living in the age in which materialism has spread abroad in humanity. We have seen that throughout the past centuries man has become more and more materialistic; but this materialism is such that a person can turn back from it at any time. The materialist still has opportunity to turn back. It is, however, necessary that at the present time a spiritual conception of the world should gain ground, a conception which leads a small group of people to this spiritual view of the world. This group will comprise those who will lay the first foundation of the great bond of brotherhood in the sixth age, which will follow ours, and is, therefore, not very far distant, whose beginning lies in a period which can be counted in millennia and these will bring about the very first division in humanity. Those who persist obstinately in materialism, and also the others who will be inclined to accept a spiritual conception, who in the small group develop a bond of brotherhood, both these will appear in the sixth age. This simple 6 can already be fateful to many, but not finally binding, for a turning back will still be possible. But mankind will continue beyond the great War of All against All. Five epochs will have passed away; the number 6 will appear again. Afterwards the allurements and temptations will come again in order further to develop the materialistic tendencies and to carry them over into the epoch of the sounding of the trumpets, and when six great periods and six smaller periods have passed away, after 66, there will already be very considerable tendencies in humanity which will not be so easy to put increasingly right as they are at the present time. Thus we see that actually the world of bad tendencies works within humanity and that the good men separate from the evil more and more clearly and definitely, in accordance with the description of the writer of the Apocalypse. The last great separation will be when the number six will be fulfilled not only for the shorter periods but for the longer ones. This will be the case when our earth has completed its six kingdoms of life or six rounds, and within the seventh. round, again six conditions of form. When the earth has finished this, the tendencies of humanity to evil will have developed to a frightful form. Nothing but evil will then appear, with frightful devastating power, in those who have remained evil.

How often, therefore, during our earth period, does humanity have the opportunity to succumb to the enticement of evil? First of all in the age after the present one, before the great War. Then man has a second and a third opportunity as well. This descent into evil is gradual. In the period when the earth has passed over into a spiritual condition, we have to deal first of all with two possibilities. When the earth reunites with the sun, those who have received the Christ-principle will then be ripe to rise into the forces of the earth which unite with the sun; those who have received the possibility of evil will be excluded. These are, as it were, in such a position that they thrust the sun away from themselves, they thrust away that which would enable them to unite with the forces of the sun. They are opponents of this union. For this reason the Apocalypse rightly designated the power, the Being, who leads men so to spiritualize themselves that they can unite with the sun as the Christ, and—as we shall hear—as the Lamb. One describes the Christ-Being as the genius of the sun who unites himself with the earth and becomes also the genius of the earth. He has already begun to be this since the event of Golgotha. But there is also an opposing principle to the Lamb, there is also a Sun-Demon, the so-called Demon of the Sun, that which works in the evil forces of man, thrusting back the force of the Lamb, and it works un such a way that a certain amount of the human race is thrust out of the evolution which leads to the sun. These are the opposing forces of the sun, they are in opposition to the sun; at the same time they are the forces which have the tendency to be entirely thrown out of our evolution when the 666 stages have passed away; they will then be finally cast into the abyss. So that we may say: At the time when the earth is united with the sun there will be excluded, not only that which is symbolized by the beast with seven heads and ten horns, but also that which is furnished with forces which are in opposition to the sun. All this is destined to disappear into the abyss when the 666 is fulfilled.

Now this 666 has always been written in a very mysterious way; we shall see later on that there is every reason to wrap in mystery the facts with which we are now dealing. And for this reason it was written 666. In the mysteries from which the writer of the Apocalypse received his initiation, they wrote 400 200 660. This is written in such a way that the laity cannot understand it. This 666 was hidden; it was to remain a secret. By having 200 here and by the other figures being transposed, an illusion is produced. Now in the kind of writing used by the Initiates there is a certain principle which consists in letters being expressed by corresponding numbers. Several of the remarkable people who, in the course of the nineteenth century wished to unravel the mystery of the number 666, hit on the principle of expressing letters by numbers, but they have come upon it in such a way that one can say: they have, indeed, heard sounds but not in unison. For they have acquired in an unclear way that which I have now explained and which has always been taught esoteric-ally. They have found out that when one sets letters of the Hebrew alphabet in place of these numbers the result is “Nero,” thus they have concluded that 666 signifies Nero. This is not the case. 666 must first be written: 400 + 200 + 6 + 60, and then one can arrive at the meaning. Then one must write 400 as ת (Tau), 200 as ר (Resh), 6 as ו (Vau), and 60 as ם (Samech). These four letters express the four numbers 400 + 200 + 6 + 60. In a wonderful way they have been drawn into this mystery, wonderful through the ingenuity of those who have drawn them in because at the same time the sounds of these four letters have again a special occult significance. What must the number 666 actually mean if it is to express what we have explained? It must mean the principle which leads man to complete hardening un the external physical life, so that he simply thrusts from him that which enables him to strip off the lower principles and to rise to the higher. That which man has obtained as physical body, etheric body, astral body and lower “I,” before it rises to the higher—these four principles are at the same time expressed by these four letters, by Samech, the physical body, Vau, the etheric body, Resh, the astral body and Tau, the lower “I.” Thus we see that that which is hardened in these four principles before they begin their divine evolution is expressed by the four letters. The writer of the Apocalypse can truly say, “Here is Truth!” For wisdom is contained in it. “Let him who hath understanding consider the number 666.”

And now we will read it. We read it in this way, from right to left.

Figure 2

We have then to supply the vowels and it reads: Sorath, Sorath is the name of the Sun-Demon, the adversary of the Lamb. Every such spiritual being was described not only by name but also by a certain symbolical sign. For Sorath, the sun-demon, there was this sign:

Figure 3

a thick stroke bent back upon itself and terminating in two curved points.

Now we must understand the writer of the Apocalypse rightly. At the very beginning he makes a remarkable statement, which is usually wrongly translated. The beginning of the Apocalypse runs, however “This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to spew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.” “Signified it.” By this we must understand that he gives the important, the real content of the mystery hi signs. He has put that which 666 expresses in signs. What he describes is the sign, and he describes it thus (Rev. xiii. 11): “And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb.” These are nothing else than the two strokes at the upper part of the sign, and in order to conceal this he simply calls the two strokes here “horns.” It was always the case in the use of the mystery language that one uses a word in more than one sense so as to make it impossible for the uninitiated to understand without special effort. That which he describes here: “It has two horns like a lamb,” is the symbol of the sun-demon, which in the mystery language is expressed by the word “Sorath,” and this, if we convert the several letters into their numbers is expressed by the four numbers, 400, 200, 6 and 60. This is a very veiled way of expressing 666. Thus we see that the writer of the Apocalypse is referring to the adversary of the Lamb. When the earth passes over into the spiritual, the forms of men appear below in such a way that they receive their old animal form. The beast with the seven heads and ten horns appears. But there also appears their seducer, the adversary of Christ, who has the great power to prevent their returning to the sun. Man himself cannot be the adversary of Christ, he can only let slip the opportunity to take the Christ-principle into himself, through what dwells in him as false power; but there is such an adversary, the sun-demon. This appears as soon as there is something that can become his prey. Before the prey is there, before the men are there with the seven heads and ten horns, there is nothing to lead astray, the tempter has nothing to seek there; but when men appear with such inclination, then comes the tempter, and he appears as the second beast and seduces them!

Thus at the moment when the earth passes over into the astral condition there appears that in man which existed in him when the earth was still clothed with a covering of water. The human animal appears. From the water one sees the beast with seven heads and ten horns raise itself. Through this human animal having left the earth unused, Sorath, the adversary of the sun, the tempter, can now arise out of the earth, through this he can approach man and tear him down with all his might into the abyss. Thus from this time on we see a being drawing close to man, which has a fear-fill power! What, then, does this being do in order to lead man into the most horrible things one can think of? For man to be led into what is merely immoral, what is already known to normal man, it did not need this monster which appears as the sun-demon. Only when that which in a good sense distinguishes the beings who bring salvation to the human race, only when spiritual eminence is turned to its opposite, only when spiritual power is placed in the service of the lower “I”-principle, can it bring humanity to the point when the beast represented with two horns gains power over it. The misuse of spiritual forces is connected with that seductive power of the beast with the two horns. And we call this abuse of the spiritual power black magic, in contradistinction to its right use, which is white magic. Thus through the separation of the human race there is prepared at the same time the power to attain greater and greater spiritual conditions on the one hand, and thereby to obtain the use of the spiritual forces, and arrive at white magic; while on the other hand abuse of spiritual forces is a preparation for the most fearful kind of power of the two horned beast—black magic. Humanity will finally he divided into beings who practise white magic and those who practise black magic. Thus in the mystery of 666 or Sorath is hidden the secret of black magic; and the tempter to black magic, that most fearful crime in the earth evolution, with which no other crimes can be compared, this seducer is represented by the writer of the Apocalypse as the two-horned beast. Thus there appears on our horizon, so to speak, the division of humanity in the far distant future; the chosen of Christ, who finally will be the white magicians, and the adversaries, the terrible wizards, the black magicians who cannot escape from matter and whom the writer of the Apocalypse describes as those who make prostitution with matter. Hence this whole practice of black magic, the union which takes place between man and the hardening in matter is presented to him in the spiritual vision of the great Babylon, the community made up of all those who carry on black magic; in the frightful marriage, or rather, unrestrained marriage, between man and the forces of prostituted matter. And thus in the far future we see two powers confronting each other; on the one hand those who swell the population of the great Babylon, and on the other hand chose who rise above matter, who as human beings unite with the principle represented as the Lamb. We see how on the one hand the blackest ones segregate themselves in Babylon, led by all the forces opposing the sun, by Sorath the two-horned beast, and we see those who have developed front the elect, who unite with Christ, or the Lamb, who appears to them; the marriage of the Lamb on the one hand, and that of Babylon, the descending Babylon, on the other! We see Babylon descend into the abyss, and the elect, who have celebrated the marriage with the Lamb, rise to the exercise of the forces of white magic. And as they not only recognize the spiritual forces but also understand how to operate then magically, they are able to prepare what they possess in the earth for the next planetary incarnation, Jupiter. They sketch out the great outlines, so to speak, which Jupiter is to have. We see the preparatory forms, which are to survive as the forms of the next earth incarnation, as Jupiter, come forth by the power of the white magicians: we see the New Jerusalem produced by white magic. But that which is described as Sorath—666—must first be expelled. That which has succumbed to the principle of the two-horned beast, and hence has hardened itself into the beast with the seven heads and ten horns, is driven forth. The power by which the sun-genius overcomes those who are expelled, which drives them down into the abyss, is called the countenance of the sun-genius and the countenance of the sun-genius is Michael, who, as the representative, so to speak, of the sun-genius, overcomes the beast with the two horns, the seducer, which is also called the great dragon. This is represented to the seer in the picture of Michael who has the key, who stands by the side of God and holds the opposing forces chained.

Thus is characterized in the Christian-Rosicrucian esotericism the casting out of those who belong to 666, and the overcoming of the dragon, the seducer. Thus before our gaze to-day there appears that which the writer of the Apocalypse has enveloped in mystery, which one must first discover by removing the veil, and of which he says, “Here is Wisdom.” “Let him who hath understanding count the number of the beast” (that is, the two-horned beast); “for this number is 666.”

Those who have connected this with Nero have made a poor response to this challenge of the writer of the Apocalypse. For you see from what cosmic depths the wisdom must be drawn which leads to the explanation of the number 666. Although to-day you may have to make efforts to understand this passage, you must not forget that it is necessary to make efforts to understand the deepest mysteries. And the Apocalyptist has veiled these deepest mysteries of cosmic evolution. He has veiled then because it is good for man that the most important mysteries should be expressed in symbols. For apart from all the rest, through the powers exercised to decipher the signs is gained much of that which at the same time lifts us up to the good powers themselves. Let us not be cast down because we have to wind our way through a scheme of numbers. If you had had to grasp what was given secretly in the ancient schools in such numbers, before anything else was given, you would have had to go through very much more. There the pupils were obliged in be silent for a long time and quietly listen when nothing but numbers, 777, 666, etc., were explained again and again, at first in their formal meaning. And only when they had grasped this meaning were they allowed to know its actual significance.

Elfter Vortrag

[ 1 ] Wir haben die Entwickelung unserer Erde haben wir so weit verfolgt, daß wir gesehen haben, wie nach verschiedenen bedeutsamen Ereignissen, die uns durch die Aufschließung der sieben Siegel, durch das Ertönen der sieben Posaunen charakterisiert sind, in der Zukunft die Erde übergeht in eine Art geistigen Zustand mit allen ihren Wesenheiten. Ausgenommen werden nur diejenigen sein, die sich weigerten, das Christus-Prinzip aufzunehmen, wobei wir das «Weigern» durchaus in dem Sinn einer energischen, böswilligen und unintelligenten geistigen Opposition zu denken haben. Natürlich werden auch diese Wesenheiten dann, wenn die Erde ihre astralische, ihre geistige Form angenommen haben wird, nicht in einem derb materiellen, sagen wir, erdigen Stoff da sein können, sondern auch sie werden für die Zeit, die dann folgt nach den Posaunenklängen, für die Zeit, die wir charakterisiert haben durch das Ausgießen der Zornesschalen, in astralische Formen übergehen, aber ihre niederer gewordene Natur, das, was ihnen eigen ist, weil sie nicht aufgenommen haben das Christus-Prinzip, das wird sich im Astralischen dadurch ausprägen, daß sie im wesentlichen jene Tiergestalt tragen, die wir als das Tier mit den sieben Köpfen und zehn Hörnern charakterisiert haben.

[ 2 ] Nun haben Sie ja aus allem, was gesagt worden ist, entnehmen können, wie die Beziehung ist zwischen dem, was wir da Köpfe und was wir Hörner nennen. Aber es wird Ihnen dabei noch immer eine Frage sozusagen auf der Seele sein, die Frage: Warum nennt man denn just dasjenige, was im physischen Leib als dieses oder jenes Organ auftritt, eigentlich Horn? Warum bezeichnet man denn die physischen Organe und ihre Überbleibsel im Astralischen, wenn die Erde astralisch geworden sein wird, als Hörner? — Das ist ja leicht verständlich, daß diejenigen Menschen, welche das Prinzip des Christus nicht in sich aufgenommen haben, wieder zurückfallen müssen in den Zustand, in dem der Mensch war, bevor er des Christus-Prinzipes teilhaftig werden konnte. Der Mensch war vorher ein unindividuelles Wesen mit einer Gruppenseele, und wir haben gesehen, daß er durch die vier ersten Zeiträume der atlantischen Zeit mit den Gruppenseelen ausgestattet war, die in richtiger Weise symbolisch dargestellt werden durch den Stierkopf, Löwenkopf, Adlerkopf und den Menschenkopf, wobei wir uns diesen letzteren als 'Tiermenschenkopf vorzustellen haben. Wir haben uns also durchaus zu denken, daß, wenn der Mensch wiedererscheint in der vergeistigten Erde und unbenutzt gelassen hat das Christus-Prinzip während unserer Epoche, er dann, weil er eben nichts dazu beigetragen hat, seine frühere Tiergruppenseelenhaftigkeit höher auszubilden, wiederum in der alten Gestalt erscheint, und nicht nur in dieser Gestalt, sondern mit weiteren drei Köpfen, die er durch die späteren Zeiträume sich noch zugezogen hat. Bevor die große Flut von Atlantis hereingebrochen ist, waren ja auf die ersten vier Zeiträume noch drei gefolgt. In diesen drei Zeiträumen haben ja diejenigen, welche später das Christus-Prinzip aufgenommen haben, auch in einer gewissen Weise die Möglichkeit in sich gehabt, weitere drei Gruppenseelenköpfe in sich aufzunehmen, aber sie haben sie umgestaltet, sie haben das Tierische im Menschen auf ein Höheres hinaufgehoben. Sie erscheinen in vergeistigter Gestalt, wenn die Erde vergeistigt sein wird. Die anderen, die das Christus-Prinzip von sich gewiesen haben, erscheinen mit sieben Köpfen, weil es sieben Zeiträume gab, innerhalb welcher vor der Flut das Tierische ausgebildet worden ist. Und weil in den letzten drei atlantischen Zeiten die Zweigeschlechtigkeit gewaltet hat im Gegensatz zu den vier ersten, erscheint sozusagen jeder Kopf mit zwei Möglichkeiten nach dem Tierischen hin, mit männlicher und weiblicher Möglichkeit, so daß jeder Kopf für diese drei letzten Zeiten mit zwei Hörnern erscheint, im ganzen der Mensch also mit zehn Hörnern.

[ 3 ] Nun kann jemand sagen: Ich verstehe wohl, daß diejenigen Menschen, die nichts an sich arbeiten, um die Gestalt, die sie haben, abzustreifen, um sie ins Menschliche heraufzuheben, wiedererscheinen in der tierischen Gestalt, aber nicht, warum man nun von Hörnern spricht. Daß man von Köpfen spricht, das ist leicht zu verstehen, warum aber von Hörnern? — Nun will ich erklären, warum man von Hörnern nicht nur spricht, sondern sprechen muß. Nicht bloß symbolisch ist der Ausdruck zu verstehen, sondern es ist Wirklichkeit. Tatsächlich werden die Menschen, die verfehlen, das Christus-Prinzip in sich aufzunehmen, ja auch in astralischer Gestalt erscheinen. Weil sie aber ihre Triebe so gestaltet haben, daß sie sozusagen an der tierischen Gruppenseele festgehalten haben, erscheinen die entsprechenden Triebe in dem astralischen Leibe, den die Menschen dann haben werden, in Form von hörnerartigen Fortsetzungen. Es ist eine wirkliche Gestalt.

[ 4 ] Ich will es an einem Organ erklären, wie es kommt, daß der Mensch, der das Christus-Prinzip nicht in sich aufnimmt, tatsächlich mit Hörnern erscheint, wenn die Erde sich vergeistigt haben wird. Nehmen Sie das Organ des menschlichen Kehlkopfes und die Luftröhre. Sie atmen fortwährend in dieser Luftröhre Luft ein und aus. Das ist eine Tätigkeit, die der Mensch ausübt. Diese Tätigkeit steht bei dem Menschen, der sich vergeistigt, im Dienste des Geistigen, bei dem Menschen aber, der nicht seine Hinneigung, ‚seine Hinordnung zum Christus-Prinzip nimmt, steht sie in Beziehung zu den alten, zu den sieben Köpfen gehörigen Kräften. Setzen wir also den Fall, daß wir es schematisch so aufzeichnen:

AltName

[ 5 ] ZFortwährend geht die Luft durch den Kehlkopf hinein von außen. Sie wissen aber, daß der astralische Leib des Menschen ihn umgibt. Der Strom der Luft, der hineingeht, wird immer in Verbindung sein mit dem Astralischen. Wenn die Erde nun sich vergeistigt, zeigt es sich, ob die Atmung bei einem Menschen ein Diener des Christus-Prinzips oder ob sie ein Diener der niederen Kräfte war, die schon vor dem Christus-Prinzip in der Welt waren. War sie ein Diener des Christus-Prinzips, dann verliert sie jene Form, die sich dem heutigen Leibe anpaßt. Der Mensch hat dann selbst die Gewalt, alles, was astralisch ist, in eine höhere, vergeistigte Form umzuwandeln. Nimmt er das Christus-Prinzip nicht auf, dann ist er außerstande, dasjenige, was der heutigen fleischlichen Form angepaßt ist, aus dieser fleischlichen Form herauszubringen. Und die Folge davon ist, daß, nachdem das Fleischliche abgefallen, verschwunden ist, nachdem der physische Kehlkopf fortgegangen ist, diese Form des astralischen Leibes bleibt, die da sich immerfort mit dem Atem hineinsteckt in den Kehlkopf. Diese Form bleibt in der Gestalt eines Hornes vorhanden. Überall, wo am Menschen die äußeren astralischen Kräfte ein- und ausgehen, bleiben sie angepaßt der vorhergehenden tierischen Gestalt, wenn der Mensch in die astralische Form übergeht, das heißt es erscheint der Mensch dann mit wahren astralischen Hörnern. Das sind wirkliche astralische Gestalten, sie entsprechen genau dem Eindringen der astralischen Substantialität während des Erdenlebens. Es ist so, daß uns in diesen Bildern nicht beliebige Symbole hingestellt werden, sondern daß sie die wahre Gestalt dessen haben, was einst erscheint. Das gilt es aufzufassen.

[ 6 ] Nun wollen wir einmal an der Hand dessen, was wir neulich betrachtet haben, an der Hand jenes etwas unbehaglichen Schemas mit den vielen Zahlen, den Platz in der Weltentwickelung bestimmen, an dem wir stehen. Da sind wir uns klar darüber, daß die 49 großen Verwandlungsformen des Saturn vorbei sind, die sieben Lebensformen des Saturn, die in theosophischen Büchern auch «Runden» genannt werden, mit je sieben Formzuständen, «Globen», daß ferner vorüber sind die 49 entsprechenden Sonnenzustände und die 49 Mondzustände. Die hat der Mensch in seiner bisherigen Entwickelung durchgemacht, im ganzen also 147 Zustände. Dazu kommen nun die Zustände, die der Mensch schon während unserer Erdenentwickelung durchgemacht hat. Da sind vorüber die drei ersten Lebensreiche, die man auch die drei ersten Runden nennt. Wir leben im vierten Lebensreich, in der vierten Runde. Weil nun jede. solche Runde wiederum sieben Zustände der Form umfaßt, so haben wir 3 mal 7 Zustände während der drei ersten Runden absolviert. Zu den 147 kommen also 21 hinzu. Das vierte Lebensreich haben wir noch nicht absolviert, aber wir haben einen Teil von diesem hinter uns. Wir haben die drei ersten Formzustände absolviert, den fast noch formlosen geistigen Zustand oder ArupaZustand, den Rupa- und den astralischen Zustand. Im physischen stehen wir. So kommen zu den 147 plus 21 noch 3 hinzu. Wir haben also absolviert 171 Formzustände von den 343 der sieben Planeten.

[ 7 ] Sie müssen vor allen Dingen ins Auge fassen, daß wir jetzt in dem 172. Formzustand stehen, und das ist die physische Erde. 171 Zustände hat sie schon durchgemacht. Während dieses 172. Zustandes hat sich alles das zugetragen, was wir geschildert haben. Als er begonnen hat, dieser Zustand, war die Erde verbunden mit Sonne und Mond. Während dieses Zustandes ist die Sonne, ist der Mond herausgegangen, und nachdem Sonne und Mond herausgegangen waren, erschien der Mensch als heutiger Mensch auf der physischen Erde. Und es begann darauf die atlantische Zeit, von der wir gesprochen haben, und wir haben gesagt: Diesen Zeitraum, der der 172. ist, den müssen wir wieder einteilen in sieben Zeiträume. — Der erste liegt weit zurück, da war am Anfang noch die Sonne bei der Erde. Etwas sehr uneigentlich ist man gewohnt worden, diesen Zeitraum die polarische Menschenrasse zu nennen. Von dieser kann man kaum eine Vorstellung geben. Dann folgt, während des Hinausgehens der Sonne, die Rasse der Hyperboräer, dann, während des Hinausgehens des Mondes, eine dritte, die sogenannte lemurische Menschenrasse. Das sind drei Zustände, und der vierte innerhalb dieses 172. Zustandes ist die atlantische Rasse. Die fünfte Rasse ist diejenige, in der wir selbst stehen. Nach der vierten war die große atlantische Flut. Nach der unserigen folgt diejenige, die in der Apokalypse des Johannes durch die sieben Siegel ausgedrückt ist, und dann diejenige, die durch die sieben Posaunen ausgedrückt ist.

[ 8 ] Nun wissen wir, daß jeder dieser Zeiträume wieder in sieben zerfällt, denn wir haben den unserigen, den fünften innerhalb des 172. Formzustandes, zerteilt in die altindische, altpersische, chaldäisch-babylonisch-assyrisch-ägyptisch-jüdische, in die griechisch-lateinische, in unsere, in eine sechste und eine siebente Kulturepoche. Dann folgt der große Krieg aller gegen alle. Das, was nach dem großen Kriege kommt, zerfällt wieder in sieben Glieder, ausgedrückt durch die sieben Siegel, und dasjenige, was durch die sieben Posaunen ausgedrückt ist, ist wiederum in sieben Glieder geteilt.

[ 9 ] Wenn Sie nun in Betracht ziehen, daß 171 noch zukünftige Formzustände zu den bereits verflossenen hinzugezählt werden müssen, dann haben Sie 342, ein weiterer dazu, der gegenwärtige, gibt alle 343, aber in diesem leben wir drinnen, er steht in der Mitte. Nun kann jemand sagen: Das ist eigentlich eine ganz wunderbare Sache, daß wir gerade das Glück haben, in der Mitte der Weltentwickelung zu leben. — Das muß in der Tat manchem, der nicht weiter darüber nachdenkt, als sonderbare Tatsache erscheinen, daß wir so mitten in der Entwickelung leben. Ja, für denjenigen, der die Sache ganz durchschaut, ist es gar nicht so sonderbar. Es ist nicht wunderbarer, als wenn jemand, der auf freiem Felde in ebener Gegend steht, wo er nach hinten und vorn gleich weit sieht, sich in der Mitte des Gesichtsfeldes befindet. Wenn er ein Stück weitergeht, blickt er wieder gleich weit nach hinten und nach vorne. Ganz andere Zustände in der Weltentwickelung würden sich ergeben, wenn wir uns an einen anderen Punkt stellen würden. Wir sind immer in der Mitte. Der Mensch kann nach hinten und vorne immer gleich viel sehen, auch mit noch so hellseherischen Organen. Etwas anderes könnte vielleicht noch auffällig sein. Es könnte jemand sagen: Wie kommt es, daß du uns nicht sagst, auch im übrigen seien wir ganz genau in der Mitte. Denn jetzt stimmt es nicht mehr. Wir zählen da den 172. Formzustand. Die genaue Mitte wäre im vierten Zeitraum desselben, wit stehen aber im fünften, also etwas über der Mitte draußen. Das stimmt also nicht genau damit, daß wir wirklich in der Mitte sind. — Da liegt eine eigentümliche Tatsache zugrunde. Durch einen Vergleich können Sie es sich klarmachen. Wenn Sie ihn genau erfassen, so sehen Sie, daß das eine wichtige Tatsache ist. Es ist wirklich so: In bezug auf die großen Hauptzustände, Formzustände stehen wir in der Mitte, aber in bezug auf diejenigen Zustände, die uns am allernächsten angehen, stehen wir etwas über die Mitte hinaus. Warum ist das so?

[ 10 ] Denken Sie sich einmal, Sie würden in einer ganz ebenen Gegend auf einer Eisenbahnstrecke fahren und in der Lage sein, nicht im Waggon sitzen zu müssen, sondern in einem für Sie besonders zugerichteten Wagen, und zwar so, daß Sie nach allen Seiten hin einen freien Blick hätten. Nehmen wir an, Sie wären imstande, das lange Zeit hindurch zu machen. Sie hätten wirklich einen freien Ausblick, und wenn Sie in irgendeinem Punkte Ihrer Fahrt sehr rasch ein Bild entwerfen könnten von der gesamten Umgebung, so würde dieses Bild vollständig kreisförmig abgeschlossen sein. Nur in einem Falle würde dies nicht der Fall sein. Denken Sie sich einmal, Sie sitzen in dem dahinfahrenden Zug und fixieren das Bild, das Sie vor sich haben. In diesem Augenblick, wo Sie es fixieren, schlafen Sie ein und fahren eine Zeitlang schlafend, und dann, wenn Sie schlafen, werden Sie eine Strecke hindurch nicht gewahr, wie das Bild sich verändert. Sie wachen auf, und in dem Zeitpunkt, wo Sie aufwachen, da denken Sie sich das Bild, das Sie vorher fixiert haben, rasch wieder aufleben. Jetzt stimmt es nicht, und der Grund davon ist, daß Sie eine gewisse Zeitstrecke verschlafen haben. Jetzt fällt nicht zusammen Ihr Bild mit dem Blick, der nach allen Seiten gleich ist, denn Sie haben dazu ein Stück, das Sie verschlafen haben.

[ 11 ] Nun fragen wir: Ist das wirklich so, daß der Mensch von der Mitte seiner Entwickelung bis in unsere Zeit herein geschlafen hat? — Es wäre uns vielleicht erklärlich, daß das Bild bis dahin vollständig stimmen mußte, jetzt, wo wir über die Mitte hinausgekommen sind, würde, wenn wir geschlafen hätten, es möglich sein, daß das Bild sich ein Stück verschoben hat. Hat der Mensch geschlafen? Im okkulten Sinn hat die Menschheit seit der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit geschlafen, weil das die Zeit ist, wo dem ganzen Menschengeschlecht als solchem abhanden gekommen ist das alte dämmerhafte Hellsehen. Die Menschen tauchen unter für das Geistige wie in einen Schlafzustand. Sie fangen an, ihren Blick auf die sinnliche Welt zu richten und gehen also für die geistige Welt in einen Schlafzustand über. Und erst wenn der Mensch wiederum das Hellsehen erlangt hat, dann wird er sozusagen nach allen Seiten einen freien Ausblick haben. Es wird nicht mehr diese Verschiebung der Evolution sein, es wird nach vorne und hinten dieselbe Strecke erscheinen. Tatsächlich hat der Mensch seit der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit geschlafen dadurch, daß er nicht teilhaftig war der Anschauung der geistigen Welten als normaler Mensch. Wenn wir von den Eingeweihten oder auch von Somnambulen meinetwegen absehen, so müssen wir sagen: Die Menschen sehen nicht, denn «sehen» bedeutet, wirklich in die Welt hineinschauen. — Gegenüber der geistigen Welt schläft die Menschheit und sie wird noch eine Zeitlang schlafen. Seit jener atlantischen Zeit gilt der Ausspruch des Johannes-Evangeliums: «Und das Licht schien in die Finsternis, aber die Finsternis hat es nicht begriffen.»

[ 12 ] So also verbirgt sich in dieser Einteilung doch eine wichtige Wahrheit, die Wahrheit, daß die Menschheit in einem finsteren Zeitalter lebt, in dem Zeitalter der Finsternis. Und in dieses Zeitalter wurde das Christus-Prinzip hereinversetzt, damit die Menschheit hinausgeführt werde in das Zeitalter des Lichts. Deshalb mußte ich Ihnen mit Recht den gegenwärtigen Stand der Entwickelung nicht in die Mitte, sondern hinter die Mitte legen, weil in Atlantis das finstere Zeitalter beginnt, das bis in das sechste Zeitalter hineingeht, bis dahin, wo die auserlesene Schar in weißen Kleidern erscheint, wo diese Schar erscheint als die ersten, die wieder imstande sind, in den gewöhnlichen normalen Verhältnissen die geistige Welt um sich herum zu haben. Da ist der Zeitraum der Finsternis abgelaufen, da erscheint der Zeitraum, von dem es heißen muß: «Das Licht scheint in die Finsternis und die Finsternis begreift das Licht.» Das schwarze Zeitalter wird deshalb auch die Zeit genannt, in welcher der Mensch seinen Blick nur auf die physisch-materielle Welt richtet und im normalen Zustand nicht die geistige Welt dahinter sieht.

[ 13 ] Nunmehr wollen wir aber anknüpfen an das, was wir weiter über die Entwickelung gesagt haben. Wenn die Entwickelung bis nach dem siebenten Zeitraum vorgeschritten sein wird, nach der Zeit, welche durch die Posaunenklänge angedeutet ist, dann vergeistigt sich die Erde, und die Erde geht zunächst ins Astralische, dann ins Devachanische und in den feineren devachanischen Zustand über. Und sie geht dann wiederum zurück in dieselben Zustände, indem sie sich von dem feinsten Geistigen immer mehr verdichtet und in denjenigen Zustand kommt, welchen man gewöhnlich in theosophischen Handbüchern die fünfte Runde nennt, die wiederum sieben Formzustände haben wird, und in der Mitte wiederum durch eine solche Entwickelung von sieben aufeinanderfolgenden, meinetwegen Rassezuständen charakterisiert werden müßte.

[ 14 ] Nun wollen wir uns einmal, wenn es uns auch schwer wird, doch in die nächsten Zustände unserer Erdenentwickelung ein wenig vertiefen. Wir wollen einen ganz bestimmten Punkt unserer Entwickelung in der Zukunft ins Auge fassen, ebenso wie wir unseren jetzigen Punkt ins Auge gefaßt haben. Fassen wir noch einmal unseren jetzigen Entwickelungspunkt ins Auge, und zwar so, daß wir bloß anfangen mit unserem jetzigen 172. Zustand. Von diesem 172. Zustande hat die Erde drei Unterzustände schon absolviert. Der 172. Zustand ist der physische Formzustand, die Erde selbst. Drei [Formzustände]} hat sie vorher schon absolviert. Sie ist jetzt im vierten dieser Zustände. Wir fassen also zunächst nur ins Auge die Formzustände [der Erde}. Wir rechnen, daß wir in dem vierten Lebensreich oder der vierten Runde sind. Die betrachten wir als gegeben und sagen: Von dieser vierten Runde, von diesem vierten Lebensreich haben wir durchgemacht drei Formzustände, und wir sind im vierten dieser Formzustände. Fragen wir uns nun weiter: Wieviel haben wir von den Unterzuständen durchgemacht? Den ersten, zweiten, dritten, vierten. Der letzte war die atlantische Zeit. Diese letzte, die atlantische Entwickelungszeit, ist also abgeschlossen. Wir sagen: Wir haben vier Zustände durchgemacht und stehen jetzt im fünften. Von diesem fünften haben wir wiederum vier durchgemacht an Unterzuständen, nämlich den altindischen, altpersischen, ägyptischen, griechisch-lateinischen. Im fünften stehen wir. So daß wir sagen: Vor unserer unmittelbar jetzigen Entwickelungsstufe haben wir 3, 4, 4 Zustände absolviert. Diese 3, 4, 4 Zustände, die wir da absolviert haben, die bezeichnet man in der Sprache des Apokalyptikers als die Zahl der Entwickelung. Wenn man also fragt: Welches ist die Zahl der Entwickelung, unserer Entwickelung? — dann heißt die Antwort: Diese Zahl unserer Entwickelung ist «344» (gelesen drei, vier, vier). — Es ist das nicht im Sinne des Zehnersystems, sondern des Siebenersystems gelesen. Drei Zustände von sieben sind durchgemacht, vier Zustände von den nächsten, kleineren sieben sind durchgemacht, und vier Zustände von abermals sieben kleineren sind durchgemacht. Das bedeutet eigentlich diese «344». Man darf sie nicht wie andere Zahlen einfach ablesen, sondern sie enthält nebeneinander geschrieben die Zahl der Zustände, die man durchgemacht hat.

[ 15 ] Nun denken wir uns folgendes: Wenn die Erde sich vergeistigt und sich in ihre nächsten Zustände hinüberentwickelt haben wird, dann werden immer mehr und mehr Stufen durchgemacht sein. Und einmal muß eine Zeit kommen, wo durchgemacht sein werden: von der ersten Gattung 6, von der zweiten 6 und von der dritten 6 Zustände. Genau wie wir jetzt als Zahl der Entwickelung 344 haben, so muß einmal in der Zukunft, in dem Zeitpunkt, wo 6 Lebensreiche oder Runden, 6 Hauptrassen und 6 Unterrassen durchgemacht sind, die Zahl «666» (gelesen sechs, sechs, sechs) gelten — uneigentlich gelesen, aber das ist die richtige Art und Weise der Schreibung des Apokalyptikers. Also es wird einmal eine Zeit kommen, wo die Zahl «666» die Zahl der Entwickelung ist. Das wird erst in einer sehr fernen Zukunft sein, aber diese Zukunft wird schon vorbereitet in unserer Zeit. Nachdem drei große Hauptzustände [Hauptrassen] durchgemacht sind, leben wir in unserer Zeit im vierten. Aber wenn die Zeit vorübergegangen sein wird, welche nach dem großen Kriege aller gegen alle durch die sieben Siegel bezeichnet ist, wenn wir angelangt sein werden [beim Zeitalter der sieben Posaunen}, dann werden wir von dieser mittleren Gattung sechs durchgemacht haben. Wenn die erste Posaune erklingen wird, werden wir 6 solche Hauptrassen durchgemacht haben, und wenn wir dann hinüberleben in die Zeit der Posaunenklänge und die Zeiten vorüber sein werden, die durch die ersten sechs Posaunen gekennzeichnet sind, dann haben wir «66» erlebt. Bis dahin hat die Menschheit Zeit gehabt, sich vorzubereiten auf den furchtbaren Zeitpunkt, der einst viel später folgt, da nämlich, wo nicht nur 66, sondern «666» erreicht sein wird.

[ 16 ] Alles Zukünftige wird schon gegenwärtig vorbereitet. Die Zeit, die nach dem großen Kriege aller gegen alle eingetreten sein wird, die Zeit des siebenten Posaunenklanges, wird Menschen sehen, die dadurch, daß sie sich vom Christus-Prinzip ausgeschlossen haben, einen hohen Grad der Bosheit, der Anlage, in den Abgrund hinunterzusinken, erlangt haben werden. Bis dahin werden diese Menschen dafür gesorgt haben, daß sie, wenn der Zeitpunkt 666 kommt, so recht tief in das Böse, in den Abgrund hineinsteigen können. Die Anlage zu diesem Hinuntersteigen in den Abgrund in urferner Zukunft nehmen die Menschen schon nach dem groBen Kriege aller gegen alle in dem Zeitalter [der Posaunen}, wenn die siebente Posaune erklingt, in sich auf. Zwar wird es noch lange Zeit möglich sein, daß die Menschen, die solche Anlage dann in sich aufgenommen haben, umkehren, sich bekehren können, daß sie zurückkehren in ihrer Entwickelung, um dann noch das Christus-Prinzip aufzunehmen. Aber die erste Anlage ist geschaffen, und diejenigen, die bei dieser Anlage bleiben, die werden dann, wenn jene urferne Zukunft kommen wird, die nicht durch 466, sondern durch 666 angedeutet wird, diese Anlage nicht mehr umwandeln können in gute Anlagen. Sie werden jenem furchtbaren Schicksal erliegen, von dem wir noch zu sprechen haben.

[ 17 ] So sehen wir, daß mit dieser Sechs-Zahl, ob sie nun einfach oder doppelt oder dreifach auftritt, etwas Schlimmes für die Menschheitsentwickelung verknüpft ist. Wir leben im fünften Haupt- und im fünften Unterzeitraum. Wir werden hinüberleben nach dem großen Krieg in den sechsten Zeitraum hinein. Aber bevor der große Krieg kommt, kommt unmittelbar hinter unserem fünften Unterzeitraume der sechste Unterzeitraum, charakterisiert durch die Gemeinde Philadelphia. Nun wissen wir, daß heute die Zeit ist, in welcher der Materialismus sich in der Menschheit ausgebreitet hat. Wir haben gesehen, wie durch die Jahrhunderte herauf die Menschen immer materialistischer geworden sind, aber dieser Materialismus ist ein solcher, daß Umkehr jederzeit möglich ist. Der materialistische Mensch hat heute noch Zeit zur Umkehr. Daher muß aber auch in unserer Gegenwart eine spirituelle Weltanschauung Platz greifen, jene Weltanschauung, welche ein kleines Häuflein von Menschen eben zu dieser okkulten, spirituellen Auffassung der Welt hinführt. Diejenigen, die den großen Bruderbund in seiner ersten Anlage begründen werden im sechsten Zeitraum, der da folgen wird auf unsere Zeit und der gar nicht so fern liegt, dessen Beginn in einer Zeit liegt, die nur nach Jahrtausenden zählt, die werden die allererste Abspaltung der Menschen bewirken. Diejenigen, die hartnäckig verharren im Materialismus, und auch die anderen, die geneigt sein werden, eine spirituelle Anschauung in sich aufzunehmen, die den Bruderbund im kleinen Häuflein ausbilden, beide werden schon auftreten in unserem sechsten Zeitraum. Diese einfache 6, sie kann schon für viele Menschen verhängnisvoll werden, aber nicht letztgültig, denn Umkehr wird auch dann noch möglich sein. Aber es werden die Menschen hinüberleben über den großen Krieg aller gegen alle. [Das Zeitalter der sieben Siegel und} fünf Zeiträume [des Posaunenzeitalters} werden vergehen, die Sechszahl wird wieder eintreten. Nachher werden neuerdings die Verlockungen und Verführungen kommen, um die materialistische Anlage weiter auszubilden, sie hinüberzutragen in die Zeit der Posaunenklänge, und wenn 6 große und 6 weitere kleinere Zeiträume verlaufen sind, nach 66, da werden schon sehr beträchtliche Anlagen in der Menschheit vorhanden sein, die nicht so leicht gutzumachen sind wie unsere.

[ 18 ] So sehen wir, daß tatsächlich immer mehr und mehr die Welt der schlechten Anlagen innerhalb der Menschheit wirkt und daß sich immer deutlicher und krasser die guten Menschen von den bösen, im Sinne der Darstellung des Apokalyptikers, voneinander scheiden. Die letzte große Scheidung wird sein, wenn nicht nur für die kürzeren, sondern für die längeren Zeiträume die Sechszahl erfüllte sein wird. Das wird dann der Fall sein, wenn unsere Erde absolviert hat ihre sechs Lebensreiche oder sechs Runden und innerhalb der siebenten Runde wiederum sechs Formzustände. Wenn sie das absolviert hat, dann werden die Anlagen der Menschheit ins Böse sich ausgebildet haben in einer furchtbaren Gestalt. Mit furchtbar verheerender Gewalt wird dann das Böse nur bei denen auftreten, die böse geblieben sind.

[ 19 ] Wir fragen uns also: Wie oft hat innerhalb unserer Erde die Menschheit Gelegenheit, der Verführung zum Bösen zu unterliegen? — Zunächst in demjenigen Zeitraum, der auf den unsrigen folgt, vor dem großen Kriege. Dann hat sie ein zweites und ein drittes Mal Gelegenheit dazu. Es bildet sich also dieser Herabstieg zum Bösen nach und nach aus. Für den Zeitraum nun, wo die Erde zuerst übergegangen ist in einen geistigen Zustand, für diesen Zeitraum haben wir es zunächst mit zwei Möglichkeiten zu tun. Wenn die Erde sich wiederum mit der Sonne verbunden haben wird, da werden diejenigen, die das Christus-Prinzip in sich aufgenommen haben, reif sein, aufzugehen in die Kräfte der Erde, die sich mit der Sonne vereinigen; ausgeschlossen werden diejenigen sein, welche die Möglichkeit zum Bösen in sich aufgenommen haben. Diese sind gleichsam so, daß sie die Sonne von sich stoßen, daß sie dasjenige, was sie befähigen würde, sich mit den Kräften der Sonne zu vereinigen, von sich stoßen. Sie sind die Gegner der Vereinigung mit der Sonne. Deshalb bezeichnet der Apokalyptiker diejenige Gewalt, dasjenige Wesen, welches die Menschen dahin führt, sich so zu vergeistigen, daß sie sich mit der Sonne vereinigen können, als den Christus in ganz richtigem Sinn, und, wie wir hören werden, als das Lamm. Man bezeichnet die Christus-Wesenheit als den Genius der Sonne, der sich mit der Erde vereinigt und auch der Genius der Erde wird. Er hat schon begonnen, es zu werden seit dem Ereignis von Golgatha.

[ 20 ] Aber es gibt auch ein gegnerisches Prinzip dieses Lammes: Es ist auch ein Sonnendämon da, das sogenannte Dämonium der Sonne, dasjenige, was in den bösen Kräften der Menschen wirkt, zurückstoßend die Kraft des Lammes. Und es wirkt so; daß ein gewisser Teil des menschlichen Geschlechtes ausgestoßen wird von der Entwickelung, die zur Sonne führt. Das sind die gegnerischen Kräfte der Sonne, die in Opposition zur Sonne stehen. Das sind zu gleicher Zeit diejenigen Kräfte, die die Anlage haben, wenn die 666 Entwickelungszustände verflossen sein werden, ganz hinausgeworfen zu werden aus unserer Entwickelung; sie werden dann letztgültig ausgestoßen sein in den Abgrund. So daß wir sagen müssen: In jener Zeit, wo die Erde mit der Sonne vereinigt ist, wird nicht nur dasjenige ausgestoßen sein, was durch das Tier mit den sieben Köpfen und zehn Hörnern symbolisiert wird, sondern auch das, was mit Kräften ausgestattet ist, die der Sonne gegenteilig sind. Das alles ist bestimmt, in den Abgrund hineinzuverschwinden, wenn die 666 erfüllt sein wird.

[ 21 ] Nun hat man diese 666 immer in einer sehr geheimnisvollen Weise aufgeschrieben. Wir werden noch sehen, daß aller Grund vorhanden ist, diese Tatsachen, die wir jetzt besprechen, ins Mysterium der Geheimnisse zu hüllen; aller Grund ist dazu vorhanden. Und weil das der Fall ist, so hüllte man sie in solches Mysterium und schrieb 666. In den Mysterien, aus denen der Apokalyptiker seine Einweihung erhalten hat, schrieb man 400 200 6 60. Das ist durchaus in einer Weise geschrieben, daß es der Laie nicht erkennen kann. Man hat verborgen diese 666; als ein Geheimnis sollte es bewahrt bleiben, indem Sie hier 400 200 6 60 haben. Und dadurch, daß alles umgestellt wird, ist ein Blendwerk geschaffen. Nun gibt es in der Schrift der Eingeweihten ein gewisses Prinzip, das darin besteht, Buchstaben durch entsprechende Zahlen zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Auf dieses Prinzip sind einige der merkwürdigen Leute gekommen, welche im Laufe des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts das Geheimnis der Zahl 666 haben enthüllen wollen, aber so, wie sie darauf gekommen sind, kann man sagen: sie haben zwar läuten, aber nicht zusammenschlagen hören. Denn sie haben sich das, was ich Ihnen jetzt hier auseinandergesetzt habe und was esoterisch immer gelehrt worden ist, in ungenauer Art angeeignet. Sie haben gefunden, daß, wenn man für diese Zahlen Buchstaben des Hebräischen setzt, man «Nero» herauskriegt; sie haben also geschlossen, das 666 bedeute Nero.

[ 22 ] Das ist nicht der Fall. 666 muß erst so aufgeschrieben werden: 400 200 6 60, dann bekommt man heraus, um was es sich handelt. Dann muß man schreiben: 400 als, 200 als, 6 als und 60 alsD. Diese vier Buchstaben drücken die vier Zahlen 400 200 6 60 aus. Sie sind durch eine wunderbare Art und Weise gerade in dieses Geheimnis hineingezogen worden, wunderbar durch den Scharfsinn derer, die sie hineingezogen haben, weil zu gleicher Zeit diese vier Buchstaben als Laute wiederum ganz besondere okkulte Bedeutung hatten. Denken Sie nur einmal, was muß denn eigentlich die Zahl 666 bedeuten, wenn sie ausdrücken soll, was wir angeführt haben? Sie muß bedeuten das Prinzip, das den Menschen zur völligen Verhärtung führt im äußeren physischen Leben, so daß er geradezu von sich stößt, was ihn befähigt, die niederen Prinzipien abzustreifen und hinaufzusteigen zu den höheren. Was der Mensch bekommen hat an physischem Leib, Ätherleib, astralischem Leib und niederem Ich, bevor es sich zum höheren hinauf erhebt, diese vier Prinzipien werden zu gleicher Zeit durch diese vier Buchstaben ausgedrückt: durch das Samech der physische Leib, durch das Waw der Ätherleib, durch das Resch der astralische Leib und durch das Taw das niedere Ich. So sehen wir, daß das Verhärtete in diesen vier Prinzipien, bevor sie ihre göttliche Entwickelung beginnen, durch die vier Buchstaben ausgedrückt wird. Der Apokalyptiker kann wahrhaft sagen: «Hier ist Weisheit!», denn Weisheit ist darinnen. «Wer Verstand hat, der überlege die Zahl, die Zahl 666!»

[ 23 ] Und jetzt wollen wir einmal lesen. Man liest das so, selbstverständlich umgekehrt:

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[ 24 ] Dann hat man noch zu ergänzen die Vokale, und es heißt «Sorat». Sorat ist der Name des Sonnendämons, des Gegners des Lammes. Und jedes solches geistige Wesen hat man bezeichnet nicht nur mit seinem Namen, sondern auch mit einem ganz bestimmten Sinnbild, mit einem symbolischen Zeichen. Für Sorat, den Sonnendämon, gab es dieses Zeichen:

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[ 25 ] einen dicken Strich, der in sich selbst zurückgebogen ist und vorne zwei gebogene Spitzen hat.

[ 26 ] Und nun müssen wir aber den Apokalyptiker richtig verstehen. Er sagt ja gleich im Anfang ein merkwürdiges Wort, das gewöhnlich falsch übersetzt wird. Der Eingang der Apokalypse heißt doch: «Dies ist die Offenbarung Jesu Christi, die ihm Gott gegeben hat, seinen Knechten zu zeigen, was in Kürze geschehen soll, und hat sie in Zeichen gesetzt und uns gegeben durch seinen Engel dem Knecht, dem Diener Johannes.» «In Zeichen gesetzt»: also wir müssen uns darauf gefaßt machen, daß er den wichtigen, den eigentlichen Mysterieninhalt in Zeichen setzt. Er hat dasjenige, was 666 ausdrückt, in Zeichen gesetzt. Was er beschreibt, ist das Zeichen, und er beschreibt es so (Kapitel 13,11): «Und ich sah ein ander Tier aufsteigen aus der Erde, das hatte zwei Hörner gleichwie ein Lamm.» Das sind nichts anderes als die zwei Striche oben an der Zeichnung, und um das zu verhüllen, nennt er einfach die zwei Striche hier «Hörner». Das war immer so im Gebrauch der Mysteriensprache, daß man ein Wort vieldeutig gebraucht hat, um den Uneingeweihten nicht so ohne weiteres die Möglichkeit zu geben, die Sache zu verstehen. Was er also hier beschreibt «das hatte zwei Hörner wie ein Lamm», das ist das Zeichen des Sonnendämons, das in der Mysteriensprache ausgedrückt wird durch das Wort «Sorat», und das, wenn wir für die einzelnen Buchstaben ihre Zahlen einsetzen, ausgedrückt wird durch die vier Zahlen 400 200 6 und 60. Das gibt 666 in sehr verhüllter Ausdrucksweise.

[ 27 ] So sehen wir, daß der Apokalyptiker auf den Gegner des Lammes hindeutet. Unten erscheinen da, wo die Erde ins Geistige übergeht, die Gestalten der Menschen so, daß sie ihre alte Tierform erhalten. Es erscheint das Tier mit den sieben Köpfen und zehn Hörnern, aber es erscheint auch ihr Verführer, der die starke Kraft hat, sie nicht zurückkommen zu lassen zur Sonne, der Gegner des Christus. Die Menschen selber können keine Gegner des Christus sein, können nur sozusagen durch das, was in ihnen an falscher Kraft ist, versäumen, das Christus-Prinzip in sich aufzunehmen. Aber es gibt einen solchen Gegner: das Sonnendämonium. Das erscheint, sobald etwas da ist, das ihm zur Beute fallen kann. Bevor die Beute da ist, bevor die Menschen da sind mit den sieben Köpfen und zehn Hörnern, da ist nichts zu verführen, da hat auch der Verführer nichts zu suchen. Dann aber, wenn der Mensch mit solchen Anlagen erscheint, dann kommt der Verführer. Und er erscheint als das zweite der Tiere und verführt.

[ 28 ] In dem Augenblick also, wo die Erde in den astralischen Zustand übergeht, erscheint vom Menschen dasjenige, was an ihm vorhanden war, als die Erde noch mit einer Wasserhülle umkleidet war. Es steigt auf das Menschentier. Aus dem Wasser sieht man sich erheben das Tier mit den sieben Köpfen und den zehn Hörnern. Daß dieses Tier unbenützt gelassen hat die Erde, das macht, daß jetzt aus der Erde aufsteigen kann Sorat, der Sonnengegner, der Verführer, der dadurch sich dem Menschen nahen und ihn mit aller Kraft in den Abgrund hinunterreißen kann. So sehen wir ein Wesen an die Menschen sich schmiegen von diesem Zeitpunkt an, das eine furchtbare Gewalt hat. Was tut denn dieses Wesen, um die Menschen in solch schauderhafte Dinge hineinzuführen, wie wir sie ahnen können? Damit die Menschen verführt werden zur bloßen Unmoral, zu dem, was sie schon als Normalmenschen kennen, dazu brauchte es dieses Ungeheuers nicht, das als Sonnendämon erscheint. Erst wenn dasjenige, was im guten Sinne die Wesen auszeichnet, die dem Menschengeschlecht Rettung bringen, erst wenn die spirituelle Erhebung in ihr Gegenteil verwandelt wird, wenn die spirituelle Kraft in den Dienst des niederen Ich-Prinzips gestellt wird, dann kann sie die Menschheit so weit bringen, daß das Tier, das dargestellt wird mit zwei Hörnern, über sie Gewalt erlangt. Der Mißbrauch der spirituellen Kräfte hängt zusammen mit jener verführerischen Kraft des Tieres mit den zwei Hörnern. Und wir nennen diesen Mißbrauch der spirituellen Kraft die schwarze Magie im Gegensatz zum. richtigen Gebrauch, den wir die weiße Magie nennen.

[ 29 ] So wird das Menschengeschlecht dadurch, daß es sich spaltet, sich darauf vorbereiten, auf der einen Seite in immer geistigere Zustände zu gelangen und dadurch in den Gebrauch der geistigen Kräfte, in die weiße Magie hineinzukommen, und auf der anderen Seite wird dasjenige, was Mißbrauch treibt mit den spirituellen Kräften, sich vorbereiten für die wildeste Kraft des zweihörnigen Tieres, die schwarze Magie. Es wird sich letzten Endes die Menschheit spalten in Wesen, welche die weiße, und in solche, welche die schwarze Magie treiben. So ist in dem Geheimnis von 666 oder Sorat das Geheimnis der schwarzen Magie verborgen. Und der Verführer zur schwarzen Magie, jenes furchtbarsten Verbrechens in der Erdenentwickelung, dem kein Verbrechen gleichkommen kann, er wird vom Apokalyptiker dargestellt durch das zweihörnige Tier. So tritt sozusagen in unseren Horizont ein die Spaltung der Menschheit in urferner Zukunft: die Auserwählten des Christus, die zuletzt sein werden die weißen Magier, und die Gegner, die wilden Zauberer, die schwarzen Magier, die nicht los können von der Materie und die der Apokalyptiker darstellt als diejenigen, die mit der Materie Unzucht treiben. Daher wird dieses ganze Treiben von schwarzer Magie, alles, was da an Ehe entsteht zwischen dem Menschen und der Verhärtung in der Materie, ihm zur Anschauung gebracht vor seiner Seherseele in der großen Babylon, in der Gemeinschaft, die alle diejenigen vereint, die schwarze Magie treiben, in der furchtbaren Ehe oder vielmehr wilden Ehe zwischen dem Menschen und den Kräften der herabgekommenen Materie.

[ 30 ] Und so sehen wir in einer urfernen Zukunft zwei Kräfte einander gegenüberstehen: auf der einen Seite diejenigen, die hineinsegeln in die Bewohnerschaft der großen Babylon, und auf der anderen diejenigen, die sich erheben über die Materie, die sich als Menschen vereinigen mit dem, was als Prinzip des Lammes hingestellt wird. Wir sehen, wie auf der einen Seite das Schwärzeste sich absondert in der Babylon, geführt von all den der Sonne entgegengesetzten Kräften, von Sorat, dem zweihörnigen Tier, und wir sehen die Menschheit, die sich entwickelt hat aus den Auserwählten, die sich vereinigen mit dem ihnen erscheinenden Christus, dem Lamm: die Hochzeit des Lammes auf der einen Seite, die der Babylon, der untergehenden Babylon auf der andern Seite. Und wir sehen hinuntersinken in den Abgrund Babylon und aufsteigen zu der Handhabung der Kräfte der weißen Magie die Auserwählten, die Hochzeit gehalten haben mit dem Lamm. Und weil sie die geistigen Kräfte nicht nur erkennen, sondern auch diese geistigen Kräfte magisch zu handhaben verstehen, können sie vorbereiten das, was sie an der Erde haben, zu der nächsten planetarischen Verkörperung, zu dem Jupiter. Sie zeichnen sozusagen die großen Grundrisse, die der Jupiter haben soll. Wir sehen sich herauserheben aus der Kraft der weißen Magier die vorbereitenden Gestalten, die hinüberleben sollen als die Gestalten der nächsten Erdenverkörperung, des Jupiters: das neue Jerusalem sehen wir aus der weißen Magie sich erheben.

[ 31 ] Vorher aber muß ausgestoßen werden, was charakterisiert ist durch Sorat, 666. Ausgestoßen wird, was verfallen ist dem Prinzip des zweihörnigen Tieres und sich daher verhärtet hat zum Tier mit den sieben Köpfen und zehn Hörnern. Die Kraft, durch welche der Sonnengenius überwinden läßt diese Ausgestoßenen, die sie hinuntertreibt in den Abgrund, diese Kraft wird genannt das Antlitz des Sonnengenius. Und das Antlitz des Sonnengenius ist Michael, der sozusagen als Stellvertreter des Sonnengenius das Tier mit den zwei Hörnern, den Verführer, den man auch den großen Drachen nennt, überwindet. Das wird dargestellt durch das dem Seher erscheinende Bild von Michael, der den Schlüssel zum Abgrund und die Kette in seiner Hand hat, der bei Gott steht und die entgegengesetzten Kräfte gefesselt hält. So wird in der christlich-rosenkreuzerischen Esoterik das Hinwegstoßen derjenigen, die zu 666 gehören, und die Überwindung des Drachens, des Verführers, charakterisiert. So taucht heute vor unserem Blicke auf, was der Apokalyptiker in Geheimnisse gehüllt hat, was man erst durch die Enthüllung herausholen muß, und wozu er sagt: «Hier ist Weisheit! Wer Verstand hat, der überlege die Zahl des Tieres», das heißt des zweihörnigen Tieres, «denn diese Zahl ist 666» (Offenbarung Johannis 13, 18).

[ 33 ] Diejenigen, die sie auf Nero bezogen haben, haben diese Aufforderung des Apokalyptikers schlecht erfüllt. Denn Sie sehen, aus welchen Tiefen der Weltenerklärung die Weisheit, die zur Zahl 666 führt, geholt werden muß. Wenn Sie sich auch heute anzustrengen hatten, um zur Charakterisierung dieses Momentes aufzusteigen, so dürfen Sie nicht vergessen, daß Anstrengung dazu gehört, um die tiefsten Geheimnisse zu verstehen. Und diese tiefsten Geheimnisse der Weltentwickelung hat der Apokalyptiker hineingelegt. Er hat sie verhüllt, weil es gut ist für die Menschen, wenn die wichtigsten Mysterien in Zeichen gesetzt werden. Denn abgesehen von allem übrigen: durch jene Kräfte, welche angestrengt werden, die Zeichen zu enthüllen, wird viel von dem erreicht, was uns zu gleicher Zeit hinaufhebt zu den guten Kräften selber. So lassen wir es uns nicht verdrießen, daß wir uns durch ein Zahlenschema haben hindurchwinden müssen. Hätten Sie in den alten Schulen das auffassen sollen, was da überhaupt an solchen Zahlen geheim gegeben worden ist, bevor irgend etwas Weiteres gegeben wurde, dann würden Sie noch viel anderes erfahren haben. Da haben die Schüler lange schweigen und ruhig zuhören müssen, wie ihnen lauter Zahlen, 777, 666 und so weiter immer und immer wieder zunächst in ihrer formalen Bedeutung klargemacht wurden. Und wenn sie diese Bedeutung erfaßt hatten, dann erst durften sie das eigentlich Inhaltvolle erkennen.

Eleventh Lecture

[ 1 ] We have followed the development of our Earth to such an extent that we have seen how, after various significant events characterized by the opening of the seven seals and the sounding of the seven trumpets, the Earth will in the future pass into a kind of spiritual state with all its beings. The only exceptions will be those who refused to accept the Christ principle, whereby we must understand “refusal” in the sense of an energetic, malicious, and unintelligent spiritual opposition. Of course, when the earth has taken on its astral, spiritual form, these beings will not be able to exist in a coarse material, let us say, earthly substance, but they too will pass into astral forms for the time that follows after the sounding of the trumpets, for the time that we have characterized as the pouring out of the bowls of wrath, but their nature, which has become lower, that which is peculiar to them because they have not accepted the Christ principle, will manifest itself in the astral realm in such a way that they will essentially take on the animal form that we have characterized as the beast with seven heads and ten horns.

[ 2 ] Now you have been able to gather from everything that has been said what the relationship is between what we call heads and what we call horns. But you will still have a question on your mind, so to speak: Why is it that we call what appears in the physical body as this or that organ a horn? Why are the physical organs and their remnants in the astral world called horns when the earth has become astral? — It is easy to understand that those people who have not taken the principle of Christ into themselves must fall back into the state in which man was before he could participate in the Christ principle. Man was previously an unindividual being with a group soul, and we have seen that during the first four periods of the Atlantean epoch he was endowed with group souls, which are symbolically represented by the bull's head, the lion's head, the eagle's head, and the human head, the latter of which we must imagine as a “animal-human head.” We must therefore think that if human beings reappear on the spiritualized earth and have left the Christ principle unused during our epoch, they will then, because they have contributed nothing to developing their former animal group soul nature, reappear in their old form, and not only in this form, but with three additional heads, which they have acquired during the later periods. Before the great flood of Atlantis, three periods followed the first four. During these three periods, those who later accepted the Christ principle also had the opportunity, in a certain sense, to take in three more group soul heads, but they transformed them, raising the animal nature in man to a higher level. They will appear in a spiritualized form when the earth is spiritualized. The others, who rejected the Christ principle, appear with seven heads because there were seven periods in which the animal nature was formed before the flood. And because dual sexuality prevailed in the last three Atlantean epochs, in contrast to the first four, each head appears, so to speak, with two possibilities toward the animal, with male and female possibilities, so that each head appears with two horns for these last three epochs, and thus the human being as a whole with ten horns.

[ 3 ] Now someone may say: I understand well that those people who do nothing to rid themselves of the form they have in order to raise it to the human level reappear in animal form, but I do not understand why one speaks of horns. It is easy to understand why one speaks of heads, but why of horns? — Now I will explain why one not only speaks of horns, but must speak of them. The expression is not to be understood merely symbolically, but is reality. In fact, people who fail to take the Christ principle into themselves will indeed appear in astral form. But because they have shaped their instincts in such a way that they have, so to speak, clung to the animal group soul, the corresponding instincts appear in the astral body that people will then have in the form of horn-like extensions. It is a real form.

[ 4 ] I will explain using an organ how it comes about that people who do not take the Christ principle into themselves will actually appear with horns when the earth has become spiritualized. Take the organ of the human larynx and the windpipe. You breathe air in and out of this windpipe continuously. This is an activity that human beings perform. In human beings who are becoming spiritualized, this activity serves the spiritual realm, but in human beings who do not accept their inclination, their orientation toward the Christ principle, it is related to the old forces belonging to the seven heads. Let us therefore assume that we record this schematically as follows:

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[ 5 ] Air continuously enters the larynx from outside. But you know that the astral body surrounds the human being. The stream of air that enters will always be connected with the astral. When the earth becomes spiritualized, it becomes apparent whether a person's breathing has been a servant of the Christ principle or a servant of the lower forces that were in the world before the Christ principle. If it has been a servant of the Christ principle, it loses the form that is adapted to the present body. The human being then has the power to transform everything that is astral into a higher, spiritualized form. If he does not accept the Christ principle, he is unable to bring out of the physical form that which is adapted to the present physical form. And the consequence of this is that after the flesh has fallen away, disappeared, after the physical larynx has gone, this form of the astral body remains, which continually inserts itself into the larynx with the breath. This form remains in the shape of a horn. Wherever the outer astral forces enter and leave the human being, they remain adapted to the previous animal form when the human being passes into the astral form, that is, the human being then appears with true astral horns. These are real astral forms; they correspond exactly to the penetration of astral substance during earthly life. It is not that arbitrary symbols are presented to us in these images, but that they have the true form of what will one day appear. This is what we must understand.

[ 6 ] Now, based on what we have recently considered, based on that somewhat uncomfortable diagram with its many numbers, let us determine the place in world evolution where we stand. We are clear that the 49 great forms of transformation of Saturn are over, the seven life forms of Saturn, which in theosophical books are also called “rounds,” each with seven form states, “globes,” and that the 49 corresponding sun states and the 49 moon states are also over. Human beings have gone through these in their development so far, making a total of 147 states. To these must now be added the states that human beings have already gone through during our Earth's development. The first three life realms, also called the first three rounds, are now over. We live in the fourth realm of life, in the fourth round. Since each such round again comprises seven states of form, we have completed 3 times 7 states during the first three rounds. So 21 are added to the 147. We have not yet completed the fourth realm of life, but we have a part of it behind us. We have completed the first three states of form, the almost formless spiritual state or Arupa state, the Rupa state, and the astral state. We are now in the physical state. So 3 are added to the 147 plus 21. We have therefore completed 171 states of form out of the 343 of the seven planets.

[ 7 ] Above all, you must bear in mind that we are now in the 172nd state of form, which is the physical Earth. It has already gone through 171 states. During this 172nd state, everything we have described has taken place. When this state began, the Earth was connected to the Sun and the Moon. During this state, the Sun and the Moon disappeared, and after the Sun and Moon had disappeared, human beings as we know them today appeared on the physical Earth. And then began the Atlantean epoch of which we have spoken, and we have said: This period, which is the 172nd, must be divided again into seven periods. — The first lies far back in time, when the sun was still close to the earth. It has become customary, somewhat inaccurately, to call this period the polar human race. It is difficult to give any idea of this. Then, as the sun receded, came the race of the Hyperboreans, then, as the moon receded, a third, the so-called Lemurian race of human beings. These are three states, and the fourth within this 172nd state is the Atlantean race. The fifth race is the one in which we ourselves stand. After the fourth came the great Atlantean flood. After ours will come the one expressed in the Apocalypse of John through the seven seals, and then the one expressed through the seven trumpets.

[ 8 ] Now we know that each of these periods is divided into seven, for we have ours, the fifth within the 172nd state of form, divided into the ancient Indian, ancient Persian, Chaldean-Babylonian-Assyrian-Egyptian-Jewish, Greek-Latin, our own, a sixth, and a seventh cultural epoch. Then follows the great war of all against all. What comes after the great war is again divided into seven parts, expressed by the seven seals, and what is expressed by the seven trumpets is again divided into seven parts.

[ 9 ] If you now consider that 171 future states of form must be added to those that have already passed, then you have 342, plus one more, the present, which makes 343, but we live in this one, it stands in the middle. Now someone might say: It is actually a wonderful thing that we are fortunate enough to live in the middle of the world's development. — Indeed, to many who do not think about it further, it must seem a strange fact that we live so centrally in the development. Yes, for those who see the matter clearly, it is not so strange at all. It is no more wonderful than when someone standing in an open field in a flat area, where they can see equally far in front of them and behind them, is in the middle of their field of vision. If they walk a little further, they can again see equally far behind them and in front of them. Completely different conditions in world development would arise if we were to stand at a different point. We are always in the middle. Human beings can always see the same distance behind and in front of them, even with clairvoyant organs. Something else might be noticeable. Someone might say: How come you don't tell us that we are also exactly in the middle? Because now it is no longer true. We are counting the 172nd form state. The exact middle would be in the fourth period of the same, but we are in the fifth, so slightly above the middle. So it is not exactly true that we are really in the middle. — There is a peculiar fact underlying this. You can see this clearly by making a comparison. If you grasp it precisely, you will see that this is an important fact. It is really so: in relation to the major main states, the form states, we are in the middle, but in relation to those states that concern us most closely, we are slightly above the middle. Why is that so?

[ 10 ] Imagine that you are traveling on a railroad track in a completely flat area and that you are not sitting in a regular train car, but in a car specially designed for you, so that you have a clear view in all directions. Let's assume that you were able to do this for a long time. You would have a completely unobstructed view, and if you could quickly form a picture of the entire surroundings at any point during your journey, this picture would be completely circular. There is only one case in which this would not be the case. Imagine that you are sitting in the moving train and fix your gaze on the picture in front of you. At the moment you fix your gaze on it, you fall asleep and travel for a while in your sleep, and then, while you are asleep, you are unaware of how the picture changes. You wake up, and at the moment you wake up, you quickly recall the picture you had fixed your gaze on before. Now it is not correct, and the reason for this is that you have slept through a certain period of time. Now your image does not coincide with the view, which is the same in all directions, because you have missed a part of it while you were asleep.

[ 11 ] Now we ask: Is it really true that human beings have been asleep from the middle of their development until our time? — It might be understandable to us that the image had to be completely correct until then, but now that we have passed the middle, if we had been asleep, it would be possible for the image to have shifted a little. Has man been asleep? In the occult sense, humanity has been asleep since the middle of the Atlantean epoch, because that is the time when the entire human race as such lost its ancient, dim clairvoyance. People submerge themselves in the spiritual realm as if in a state of sleep. They begin to focus their gaze on the sensory world and thus enter a state of sleep for the spiritual world. And only when humans have regained clairvoyance will they have a clear view in all directions, so to speak. There will no longer be this shift in evolution; the same distance will appear in front and behind. In fact, humans have been asleep since the middle of the Atlantean epoch because they have not participated in the perception of the spiritual worlds as normal human beings. If we disregard the initiated or even somnambulists, we must say that human beings do not see, because “seeing” means really looking into the world. Humanity is asleep to the spiritual world and will continue to sleep for some time. Since that Atlantean epoch, the saying from the Gospel of John has been true: “And the light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.”

[ 12 ] Thus, this division conceals an important truth, namely that humanity is living in a dark age, the age of darkness. And into this age the Christ principle was brought in, so that humanity might be led out into the age of light. That is why I had to place the present stage of development not in the middle, but behind the middle, because in Atlantis the dark age begins, which continues into the sixth age, until the time when the chosen few appear in white robes, where this band appears as the first who are again able to have the spiritual world around them in ordinary, normal conditions. Then the period of darkness will have passed, and the period will appear of which it must be said: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend the light.” The black age is therefore also called the time in which human beings focus their gaze only on the physical, material world and in their normal state do not see the spiritual world behind it.

[ 13 ] Now let us return to what we have said about evolution. When development has progressed to the seventh period, after the time indicated by the sounds of the trumpets, the earth will become spiritualized and will first pass into the astral, then into the devachanic, and finally into the finer devachanic state. And it will then return to the same states, becoming increasingly denser from the finest spiritual state and entering the state which is usually called the fifth round in theosophical handbooks, which in turn will have seven form states, and in the middle will again be characterized by such a development of seven successive, let us say, racial states.

[ 14 ] Now let us try, even if it is difficult, to delve a little deeper into the next stages of our Earth's development. Let us consider a very specific point in our future development, just as we have considered our present point. Let us once again consider our present point of development, beginning with our present 172nd state. From this 172nd state, the earth has already completed three sub-states. The 172nd state is the physical form state, the Earth itself. It has already completed three [form states]. It is now in the fourth of these states. So, for now, let us only consider the form states [of the Earth]. We calculate that we are in the fourth realm of life or the fourth round. We consider this to be a given and say: From this fourth round, from this fourth realm of life, we have passed through three states of form, and we are in the fourth of these states of form. Let us now ask ourselves: How many of the sub-states have we passed through? The first, second, third, fourth. The last was the Atlantean period. This last, the Atlantean period of development, is therefore complete. We say: We have gone through four states and are now in the fifth. Of this fifth, we have again gone through four sub-states, namely the ancient Indian, ancient Persian, Egyptian, and Greek-Latin. We are now in the fifth. So we say: Before our immediate present stage of development, we completed 3, 4, 4 states. These 3, 4, 4 states that we completed are referred to in the language of the apocalypticist as the number of development. So if one asks: What is the number of development, of our development? — then the answer is: The number of our development is “344” (read three, four, four). — This is not read in the decimal system, but in the septimal system. Three states of seven have been passed through, four states of the next, smaller seven have been passed through, and four states of yet another seven smaller ones have been passed through. That is what “344” actually means. It cannot be read like other numbers, but contains, written side by side, the number of states that have been passed through.

[ 15 ] Now let us consider the following: when the earth has become spiritualized and has evolved into its next states, more and more stages will have been passed through. And a time must come when the following will have been passed through: the first six states, the second six, and the third six. Just as we now have 344 as the number of development, so in the future, at the point in time when 6 realms of life or rounds, 6 main races and 6 sub-races have been passed through, the number “666” (read six, six, six) must apply — read improperly, but that is the correct way of writing it according to the apocalyptic writer. So there will come a time when the number “666” will be the number of development. This will only be in a very distant future, but this future is already being prepared in our time. After three major states [main races] have been passed through, we are now living in the fourth. But when the time has passed which is marked by the seven seals after the great war of all against all, when we have arrived [at the age of the seven trumpets], then we will have passed through six of this middle genus. When the first trumpet sounds, we will have gone through six such main races, and when we then live through the time of the trumpet sounds and the times marked by the first six trumpets are over, then we will have experienced “66.” Until then, humanity will have had time to prepare for the terrible moment that will follow much later, when not only 66 but “666” will be reached.

[ 16 ] Everything that is to come is already being prepared in the present. The time that will come after the great war of all against all, the time of the seventh trumpet blast, will see people who, by excluding themselves from the Christ principle, will have attained a high degree of wickedness, the predisposition to sink into the abyss. By then, these people will have ensured that when the time of 666 comes, they will be able to descend so deeply into evil, into the abyss. The predisposition to descend into the abyss in the distant future will already be absorbed by people after the great war of all against all in the age [of the trumpets], when the seventh trumpet sounds. It will still be possible for a long time for people who have taken this predisposition into themselves to turn back, to convert, to return in their development, and then to take in the Christ principle. But the first predisposition has been created, and those who remain with this predisposition will then, when that distant future comes, which is indicated not by 466 but by 666, no longer be able to transform this predisposition into good predispositions. They will succumb to that terrible fate of which we still have to speak.

[ 17 ] Thus we see that something terrible for human development is connected with this number six, whether it appears singly, doubly, or triply. We are living in the fifth main period and the fifth sub-period. After the great war, we will live into the sixth period. But before the great war comes, immediately after our fifth sub-period, the sixth sub-period will come, characterized by the community of Philadelphia. Now we know that today is the time when materialism has spread throughout humanity. We have seen how, over the centuries, people have become increasingly materialistic, but this materialism is such that reversal is possible at any time. The materialistic person still has time to change. Therefore, a spiritual worldview must also take hold in our present time, a worldview that is leading a small group of people to this occult, spiritual understanding of the world. Those who will establish the great brotherhood in its first form in the sixth epoch that will follow our time, which is not so far away, whose beginning lies in a time that can only be counted in millennia, will bring about the very first separation of human beings. Those who stubbornly persist in materialism, and also those who will be inclined to accept a spiritual view that forms the brotherhood in the small group, both will already appear in our sixth period. This simple 6 can already be disastrous for many people, but not ultimately, because repentance will still be possible then. But people will survive the great war of all against all. [The age of the seven seals and] five periods [of the trumpet age] will pass, and the number six will reappear. Afterwards, temptations and seductions will come anew to further develop the materialistic disposition, to carry it over into the time of the trumpet sounds, and when 6 large and 6 smaller periods have passed, after 66, there will already be very considerable dispositions in humanity that will not be as easy to remedy as ours.

[ 18 ] Thus we see that the world of evil dispositions is indeed becoming more and more active within humanity and that, in the sense of the apocalyptic writer, the good are separating more and more clearly and starkly from the evil. The final great separation will be when the number six is fulfilled, not only for the shorter periods of time, but also for the longer ones. This will be the case when our Earth has completed its six realms of life or six cycles and, within the seventh cycle, six states of form. When it has completed this, the predispositions of humanity toward evil will have developed into a terrible form. With terrible, devastating force, evil will then appear only in those who have remained evil.

[ 19 ] We therefore ask ourselves: How often does humanity have the opportunity to succumb to the temptation of evil within our Earth? — First, in the period following ours, before the great war. Then it has a second and a third opportunity to do so. This descent into evil thus develops gradually. For the period when the Earth first passed into a spiritual state, we are initially faced with two possibilities. When the Earth has reconnected with the Sun, those who have taken the Christ principle into themselves will be ready to rise up into the forces of the Earth that are uniting with the Sun; those who have taken the possibility of evil into themselves will be excluded. These are, as it were, such that they repel the sun, repelling that which would enable them to unite with the forces of the sun. They are the opponents of union with the sun. That is why the apocalyptic writer describes the power, the being that leads people to become so spiritualized that they can unite with the sun, as Christ in the truest sense, and, as we shall hear, as the Lamb. The Christ being is described as the genius of the sun, which unites with the earth and also becomes the genius of the earth. It has already begun to become so since the event at Golgotha.

[ 20 ] But there is also an opposing principle to this Lamb: there is also a sun demon, the so-called demonium of the sun, which works in the evil forces of human beings, repelling the power of the Lamb. And it works in such a way that a certain part of the human race is cast out of the development that leads to the sun. These are the opposing forces of the sun, which stand in opposition to the sun. At the same time, these are the forces that have the potential, when the 666 stages of development have passed, to be completely cast out of our development; they will then be finally cast into the abyss. So we must say: At that time, when the earth is united with the sun, not only will that which is symbolized by the beast with seven heads and ten horns be cast out, but also that which is endowed with forces that are opposed to the sun. All this is destined to disappear into the abyss when the 666 is fulfilled.

[ 21 ] Now, this 666 has always been written down in a very mysterious way. We shall see that there is every reason to shroud the facts we are now discussing in mystery; there is every reason for this. And because that is the case, they shrouded it in such mystery and wrote 666. In the mysteries from which the apocalyptic writer received his initiation, they wrote 400 200 6 60. This is written in such a way that the layman cannot recognize it. They hid this 666; it was to remain a secret, by having 400 200 6 60 here. And by rearranging everything, a deception was created. Now, there is a certain principle in the writings of the initiated, which consists of expressing letters by corresponding numbers. Some of the strange people who wanted to reveal the secret of the number 666 in the course of the nineteenth century came upon this principle, but the way they came upon it, one can say: they heard the bells ringing, but they did not hear them striking. For they have appropriated in an inaccurate manner what I have now explained to you here and what has always been taught esoterically. They found that if you substitute Hebrew letters for these numbers, you get “Nero”; they therefore concluded that 666 means Nero.

[ 22 ] That is not the case. 666 must first be written down as follows: 400 200 6 60, then you can work out what it means. Then you have to write: 400 as, 200 as, 6 as and 60 asD. These four letters express the four numbers 400, 200, 6, and 60. They have been drawn into this mystery in a wonderful way, wonderfully by the ingenuity of those who drew them in, because at the same time these four letters as sounds had a very special occult meaning. Just think for a moment what the number 666 must actually mean if it is to express what we have mentioned. It must mean the principle that leads human beings to complete hardening in their outer physical life, so that they literally repel what enables them to cast off the lower principles and ascend to the higher ones. What man has received in his physical body, etheric body, astral body, and lower self before it rises to the higher, these four principles are expressed at the same time by these four letters: by the Samech the physical body, by the Waw the etheric body, by the Resch the astral body, and by the Taw the lower self. Thus we see that the hardened elements in these four principles, before they begin their divine development, are expressed by the four letters. The apocalyptic writer can truly say, “Here is wisdom!” for wisdom is contained therein. “Let him who has understanding calculate the number, the number 666!”

[ 23 ] And now let us read it. It is read as follows, of course in reverse:

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[ 24 ] Then one has to add the vowels, and it means “Sorat.” Sorat is the name of the sun demon, the enemy of the Lamb. And every such spiritual being is designated not only by its name, but also by a very specific symbol, a symbolic sign. For Sorat, the sun demon, there was this sign:

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[ 25 ] a thick line that curves back on itself and has two curved points at the front.

[ 26 ] And now we must understand the apocalyptic writer correctly. Right at the beginning, he uses a strange word that is usually mistranslated. The opening words of the Apocalypse are: “This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place, and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.” “In signs": so we must prepare ourselves for the fact that he sets the important, the actual content of the mystery in signs. He has set what 666 expresses in signs. What he describes is the sign, and he describes it thus (chapter 13:11): ”And I saw another beast rising up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb.” These are nothing other than the two lines at the top of the drawing, and to conceal this, he simply calls the two lines here “horns.” This was always the case in the use of mystery language, that a word was used ambiguously so that the uninitiated would not be able to understand the matter so easily. So what he describes here as “having two horns like a lamb” is the sign of the sun demon, which is expressed in the language of mystery by the word “Sorat,” and which, when we substitute the numbers for the individual letters, is expressed by the four numbers 400, 200, 6, and 60. This gives 666 in a very veiled form of expression.

[ 27 ] Thus we see that the apocalyptic writer is pointing to the adversary of the Lamb. Below, where the earth passes into the spiritual realm, human figures appear in such a way that they retain their old animal form. The beast with seven heads and ten horns appears, but so does their seducer, who has the power to prevent them from returning to the sun, the enemy of Christ. Human beings themselves cannot be enemies of Christ; they can only fail to accept the Christ principle within themselves through what is false in them. But there is such an enemy: the sun demon. It appears as soon as there is something that can fall prey to it. Before the prey is there, before the people with the seven heads and ten horns are there, there is nothing to tempt, and the tempter has no business there. But then, when people with such predispositions appear, the tempter comes. And he appears as the second of the beasts and tempts them.

[ 28 ] At the moment when the earth passes into the astral state, that which was present in man when the earth was still surrounded by a watery envelope appears. It rises up onto the human animal. Out of the water, one sees the beast with seven heads and ten horns rising up. The fact that this animal left the earth unused means that Sorat, the enemy of the sun, the seducer, can now rise from the earth and approach humans, dragging them down into the abyss with all his power. So we see a being clinging to humans from this point on, a being with terrible power. What does this being do to lead people into such dreadful things as we can imagine? In order for people to be seduced into mere immorality, into what they already know as normal human behavior, there was no need for this monster appearing as a sun demon. Only when that which distinguishes beings in the good sense, which brings salvation to the human race, only when spiritual elevation is transformed into its opposite, when spiritual power is placed at the service of the lower ego principle, can it bring humanity to the point where the animal, represented by two horns, gains power over it. The misuse of spiritual powers is connected with the seductive power of the beast with two horns. And we call this misuse of spiritual power black magic, in contrast to its right use, which we call white magic.

[ 29 ] Thus, by dividing itself, the human race will prepare itself, on the one hand, to attain ever more spiritual states and thereby to enter into the use of spiritual forces, into white magic, and on the other hand, those who what abuses the spiritual forces will prepare itself for the wildest power of the two-horned beast, black magic. Ultimately, humanity will divide into beings who practice white magic and those who practice black magic. Thus, the secret of 666 or Sorat conceals the secret of black magic. And the tempter to black magic, that most terrible crime in the evolution of the earth, to which no crime can be compared, is represented by the apocalypticist through the two-horned beast. Thus, the division of humanity in the distant future enters our horizon, so to speak: the chosen ones of Christ, who will ultimately be the white magicians, and their opponents, the wild sorcerers, the black magicians, who cannot free themselves from matter and whom the apocalypticists depict as those who commit fornication with matter. Therefore, all this black magic, everything that arises from the marriage between man and the hardening of matter, is brought before his mind's eye in the great Babylon, in the community that unites all those who practice black magic, in the terrible marriage, or rather wild marriage, between man and the forces of degenerate matter.

[ 30 ] And so we see in a distant future two forces facing each other: on the one hand, those who sail into the inhabitants of the great Babylon, and on the other, those who rise above matter, who unite as human beings with what is presented as the principle of the Lamb. We see how, on the one side, the blackest separates itself in Babylon, led by all the forces opposed to the sun, by Sorat, the two-horned beast, and we see humanity, which has developed from the chosen ones who unite with the Christ who appears to them, the Lamb: the marriage of the Lamb on one side, that of Babylon, the falling Babylon, on the other. And we see sinking into the abyss of Babylon and rising to wield the powers of white magic the elect who have married the Lamb. And because they not only recognize the spiritual forces, but also know how to wield these spiritual forces magically, they can prepare what they have on Earth for the next planetary incarnation, for Jupiter. They draw, so to speak, the great blueprints that Jupiter is to have. We see the preparatory figures emerging from the power of the white magicians, who are to live on as the figures of the next Earth incarnation, Jupiter: we see the new Jerusalem rising from white magic.

[ 31 ] But first, that which is characterized by Sorat, 666, must be cast out. That which has fallen prey to the principle of the two-horned beast and has therefore hardened into the beast with seven heads and ten horns will be cast out. The power through which the sun genius overcomes these cast-out ones, driving them down into the abyss, is called the face of the sun genius. And the face of the sun genius is Michael, who, as the representative of the sun genius, so to speak, overcomes the beast with the two horns, the deceiver, who is also called the great dragon. This is represented by the image of Michael appearing to the seer, holding the key to the abyss and the chain in his hand, standing with God and holding the opposing forces in chains. Thus, in Christian Rosicrucian esotericism, the casting away of those who belong to 666 and the overcoming of the dragon, the deceiver, is characterized. Thus, what the apocalyptic writer has shrouded in mystery appears before our eyes today, something that must first be revealed, and about which he says: “Here is wisdom! Let anyone who has understanding calculate the number of the beast,” that is, the two-horned beast, ‘for this number is 666’ (Revelation 13:18).

[ 33 ] Those who have applied this to Nero have poorly fulfilled the apocalyptic writer's request. For you see from what depths of the explanation of the world the wisdom that leads to the number 666 must be drawn. Even if you had to make an effort today to rise to the level of characterizing this moment, you must not forget that effort is necessary to understand the deepest mysteries. And the apocalyptic writer has placed these deepest mysteries of world development within it. He has veiled them because it is good for people when the most important mysteries are set in signs. For apart from everything else, through the forces that are exerted to reveal the signs, much of what lifts us up to the good forces themselves is achieved. So let us not be annoyed that we have had to wind our way through a system of numbers. If you had been able to grasp in the old schools what was secretly given in such numbers before anything else was given, you would have learned much more. There, the pupils had to sit silently and listen quietly as numbers such as 777, 666, and so on were explained to them over and over again, first in their formal meaning. And only when they had grasped this meaning were they allowed to recognize the actual content.