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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 181 through 190 of 434

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187. How Can Humanity Find the Christ Again?: The Birth of Christ in the Human Soul 22 Dec 1918, Basel
Translated by Alan P. Shepherd, Dorothy S. Osmond

For these will have to do with the new Trinity: the human being, representing all humanity; the forces of Ahriman; and the forces of Lucifer. As one learns how man is placed in world existence in a situation of balance between Ahriman and Lucifer, one comes to understand the real significance of the human being in external physical life.
But they can only contribute to the salvation of mankind if I dedicate them to the service of Christ Jesus, if I permeate my whole nature with the Christ, so that they may be freed from the grasp of Lucifer. A heart permeated by the Christ tears away from Lucifer what otherwise works luciferically in human physical existence.
It is the new Christmas thought, the new annunciation of Christ's activity in our souls, transforming the luciferic influence. Lucifer's power in us is not due to our having come out of the spiritual world, but to the fact that we are clothed by a physical body permeated by blood.
165. Festivals of the Seasons: Meditations on the New Year: Perceiving and Remembering 02 Jan 1916, Dornach
Translated by Harry Collison

Why is it that we first perceive the results of the impacts of the etheric body on the physical body? It is because Ahriman and Lucifer are bound up with the earthly world, because Ahriman has shackled the physical body so firmly to the whole being of man, that the etheric body cannot easily free itself; because he has so densely compressed the physical body to the etheric body; and because the spirits that serve Ahriman are always present, they bring it to pass that when man is in the light, his light-body with its movements are darkened, so that he cannot behold them.
May the offspring of evil now be driven out (of Ahriman, but Ahriman is not written there), who follow me, and may they sink down among the lower Gods of Chaos; and let them not come near the upper Gods, that they may behold me.
The Light is my Saviour, I shall not be afraid.’ When we fear we must think of Ahriman as we saw him in one of the Mystery Plays. Look at this fragment of the Pistis-Sophia. Does it not appear as if it had been saved on purpose to enable us to speak somewhat as follows: Behold, you opponents of the new Spiritual Science.
165. Perceiving and Remembering 02 Jan 1916, Dornach
Translator Unknown

Why is it that we first perceive the results of the impacts of the etheric body on the physical body? It is because Ahriman and Lucifer are bound up with the earthly world, because Ahriman has shackled the physical body so firmly to the whole being of man, that the etheric body cannot easily free itself; because he has so densely compressed the physical body to the etheric body; and because the spirits that serve Ahriman are always present, they bring it to pass that when man is in the light, his light-body with its movements are darkened, so that he cannot behold them.
May the offspring of evil now be driven out (of Ahriman, but Ahriman is not written there), who follow me, and may they sink down among the lower Gods of Chaos; and let them not come near the upper Gods, that they may behold me.
When we fear, we must think of Ahriman as we saw him in one of the Mystery Plays. Look at this fragment of the Pistis-Sophia. Does it not appear as if it had been saved on purpose to enable us to speak somewhat as follows: Behold, you opponents of the new Spiritual Science.
229. Four Seasons and the Archangels: The Easter Imagination 07 Oct 1923, Dornach
Translated by Mary Laird-Brown, Charles Davy

The head of the Christ-figure, the conqueror of Ahriman, appears with a countenance, a look and a bearing such that the dissolvent forces of Lucifer cannot touch them.
Every look, every trait in the countenance, every flowing fold in the garment should be thought of as placing the Christ-figure between the forms of Lucifer and Ahriman as the One who works in human evolution so that man may be wrested from the Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers at the very time, the time of Easter and Spring, when he could most readily fall victim to them.
But in the case of the Easter Imagination, where over against the activities of the Nature-spirits there arises the higher life of the spirit, as this can develop in the neighbourhood of the Christ, I could show how the Imagination can lead directly to a ritual in the earthly realm, a ritual embracing things which must be cherished and preserved on Earth—the health-giving healing forces, and a knowledge of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces which could destroy the human organism. For Ahriman hardens man, while Lucifer wishes to dissolve and evaporate him through his breathing. In all this the forces that make for illness reside.
265a. Lessons for the Participants of Cognitive-Cultic Work 1906–1924: The Guardian of the Threshold 21 May 1923, Oslo

Yes, it is true, there are countless dangers and difficulties that every esotericist encounters before he becomes clairvoyant, and also after he has received [clairvoyance]. Lucifer and Ahriman are always trying to get power over people, but never as strongly (powerfully) as after the attainment of higher knowledge.
It is particularly easy to succumb to vanity, ambition and pride. We also succumb to Ahriman. He tries to turn us into materialists and wants the esoteric knowledge we receive in esoteric practice to become rigid and fossilized into dogmas.
And if someone achieves a little clairvoyance, [Ahriman] does everything to awaken false ideas and illusions. This must be clear to every esotericist. But just as Lucifer and Ahriman fight to gain power over the esotericist and prevent occult development, it is equally certain that good powers always surround the esotericist and are ready to give him strength to resist these enemies in all temptations.
286. Ways to a New Style in Architecture: The New Conception of Architecture 28 Jun 1914, Dornach
Translated by Harry Collison

Just as we have the same circle, so we have within ourselves a duality: something that belongs to everyday life and is readily perceptible, and something that we only grasp when we go out to the whole universe, conceiving of this entity as the most complicated product of the great cosmic struggle where Ahriman and Lucifer carry out the division and where our own higher self has to maintain itself as the quotient if it is ever to come to expression.
[IMAGE REMOVED FROM PREVIEW] Rudolf Steiner working at the central figure of the great wooden statue: to the left the model made by him; in the middle, Christ, the Representative of humanity; above, Lucifer fallen; below, Ahriman imprisoned. From a drawing by W. S. Pyle. [IMAGE REMOVED FROM PREVIEW] Interior of the Goetheanum.
176. The Karma of Materialism: Lecture III 14 Aug 1917, Berlin
Translated by Rita Stebbing

Furthermore, that is the realm in which the impulse from the Mystery of Golgotha meets all the attacks of Ahriman. Our intellect is the arena where the impulse of Christ fights the impulse of Ahriman. Man's evolution, his purely external evolution on earth, will take its course and Ahriman will not be as fettered as he is now.
I have often said that Lucifer acts in partnership with Ahriman. They work together. They both have great interest in deluding man concerning the necessity of this inner conflict.
They do because he is inwardly too much of a coward to face the conflict and much prefers Lucifer-Ahriman to invent “harmony with the infinite” for him. However it is an attitude that is the equivalent of going through life blindfolded, seeking only appeasement.
14. Four Mystery Plays: Persons, Apparitions and Events

BEINGS FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD: Lucifer. Ahriman. BEINGS OF THE ELEMENT OF HUMAN SPIRIT: The Double of Thomasius.
Felicia Balde, modern with stole. Lucifer, flowing crimson and gold robes, long golden hair, and crowned when on his throne. Ahriman in yellow robes.
189. The Social Question as a Question of Consciousness: Lecture III 21 Feb 1919, Dornach
Translator Unknown

I have often put this in another way—people hear of Lucifer and Ahriman and say to themselves: keep well out of the way; have nothing to do with Lucifer and Ahriman; I'll stand fast by God:—To deal with the matter in this abstract manner is to be only the more deeply drawn into the toils of Lucifer and Ahriman.
107. The Deed of Christ and the Opposing Spiritual Powers: Mephistopheles and Earthquakes 01 Jan 1909, Berlin
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond

These two figures—Lucifer and Ahriman—must be clearly distinguished from each other. For Lucifer is a Being who detached himself from the spiritual hosts of heaven after the separation of the sun, whereas Ahriman had already broken away before the separation of the sun and is an embodiment of quite different powers.
Goethe's “Mephistopheles” is none other than the figure of Ahriman and must not be confused with Lucifer. All the errors cropping up here and there in commentaries on Faust originate from this confusion—although it was indeed Lucifer who first paved the way for Ahriman's influence.
In the influences of Ahriman, therefore, we have to do with powers of a much lower nature than the influences of Lucifer. Lucifer's influences can never become as evil as the influences of Ahriman and of those Beings who are connected with the powers of fire.

Results 181 through 190 of 434

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