The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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:

[ 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:

[ 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:

[ 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).

[ 32 ] 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.