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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 291 through 300 of 434

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194. The Mysteries of Light, of Space, and of the Earth: The Old Mysteries of Light, Space, and Earth 15 Dec 1919, Dornach
Translated by Frances E. Dawson

The first abyss is lies, the degeneration of humanity through Ahriman; the second is self-seeking, the degeneration of humanity through Lucifer; the third is, in the physical realm, illness and death; in the cultural realm, the illness and death of culture. The Anglo-American world may gain world dominion; but without the Threefold Social Order it will, through this dominion, pour out cultural death and cultural illness over the whole earth; for these are just as much a gift of the Azuras as lies are a gift of Ahriman, and self-seeking, of Lucifer. So the third, a worthy companion of the other two, is a gift of the Azuric powers!
279. Eurythmy as Visible Speech: The Plastic Formation of Speech 02 Jul 1924, Dornach
Translated by Vera Compton-Burnett, Judith Compton-Burnett

It is deeply interesting go consider such things, for in the breath sounds what really comes to expression is this: I will have nothing to do with Lucifer; everything which is Luciferic must disappear.– And the consonants of force express this feeling: I will hold fast to Ahriman, for if he escapes me he will poison everything; he must be held fast.– Thus the influence of Lucifer and of Ahriman has been implanted into these sounds.
181. A Sound Outlook for Today and a Genuine Hope for the Future: East and West 09 Jul 1918, Berlin
Translator Unknown

We need only recollect what I have told you of the activities of Lucifer and Ahriman, in the past and present, what they do and feel and specially what they have done; yet people think themselves cleverer than they, and claim that they themselves would have avoided “remaining behind”, etc.
273. The Problem of Faust: The Helena Saga and the Riddle of Freedom 04 Nov 1917, Dornach
Translated by George Adams

It is a weakness of many people to-day, when they hear of Lucifer and Ahriman, to explain: “For Heaven's sake, let us avoid them!” As though they could avoid them!
192. Humanistic Treatment of Social and Educational Issues: Thirteenth Lecture 13 Jul 1919, Stuttgart

When you read Woodrow Wilson, you feel as if you are talking to Ahriman himself, who reigns in the depths of Woodrow Wilson's soul. — Herman Grimm is there, with every single sentence, the whole personality is always there; Woodrow Wilson is completely gone, a demon speaks through a human mouth in the depths of the human soul.
We must have the courage to say: When two people stand opposite each other in the affairs of the present day, as Scheler and Plenge did, then the one, Scheler, speaks in a Luciferic way, out of impulses that he allows to be fertilized by a Catholicizing Christianity. Ahriman speaks to Lucifer, not the human being in between. This human being in between must first be found again.
140. Descriptive Sketches of the Spiritual World: Lecture II 11 Oct 1913, Bergen
Translated by Harry Collison

There is no way in which a dangerous clairvoyance is more easily developed than by using the forces which exist in present-day man for developing the organs of speech, and which, if kept back, enable him to see into his former earth-lives; for they are mostly connected with the lower instincts and passions in man's nature. In no other way is one brought so near to Lucifer and Ahriman as by developing these forces, for although they certainly lead one to the height of being able to look back into one's own and other people's past lives, yet they lead to the powers of illusion; and if not rightly developed the clairvoyant may, under their influence, fall morally low, rather than rise to the heights.
Because among these arise at the same time out of man, like a mist, the lower instincts and impulses; and then Ahriman and his Ahrimanic spirits approach, and out of what thus arises they form phantoms which can be seen, and are then regarded as belonging to former incarnations.
140. Links Between the Living and the Dead: The Transformation of Earthly Forces into Clairvoyant Faculties 11 Oct 1913, Bergen
Translator Unknown

There is no easier way of unfolding a dangerous form of clairvoyance than by the development of those forces which in modern man are there for the purpose of producing the organs of speech and which, if kept back, enable him to look into earlier incarnations; for these forces are connected most closely of all with the lower instincts and passions in man's nature. And by nothing is a man brought so near to Lucifer and Ahriman as by the development of these forces which, at a certain level, enable him to look back into his own earlier earth-lives or into those of others.
It is because when the forces saved from this age of life are put into application, the lower instincts and urges immediately rise out of the human being like mist. And then Ahriman and the Ahrimanic spirits approach and out of this rising mist create ghosts, spectres, which can be seen and taken to be earlier incarnations.
173c. The Karma of Untruthfulness II: Lecture XXII 21 Jan 1917, Dornach
Translated by Johanna Collis

That is why they can be so easily approached by purely spiritual influences such as those of Lucifer and Ahriman. Human beings are too spiritual. Just because of this spirituality they easily become materialistic.
Those very people who are most spiritual are the ones most open to the whisperings of Ahriman, as a result of which they grow materialistic. Strongly though one must combat materialistic views and materialistic ways of life, nevertheless one may not maintain that the most unspiritual people belong to the circles of materialists.
152. Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ 07 Mar 1914, Pforzheim
Translator Unknown

If, during the old Lemurian epoch, the first Christ-Event had not taken place, Lucifer and Ahriman would have been able to bring about disaster to the whole of humanity since man, through his upright position, was wrested from the spiritual forces of the Earth.
This outpouring occurred for the first time in the Lemurian epoch when the upright position of man was threatened by Lucifer. It occurred for the second time in the Atlantean epoch when man's power of speech which, as an expression of his inner being, was in danger of being disordered, was saved.
161. The Fourfold Nature of the “I” 09 Jan 1915, Dornach

If you could imagine a poem or piece of music eurythmized in such a way that you could abstract, disregard the physical body and only look at what the etheric body is doing, then you would have the I in the etheric body moving within. We try to defy Ahriman with this eurythmy; because Ahriman has come into the world, the human etheric body has become so hardened that it could not develop eurythmy as a natural gift.
But this I-3 is influenced by beings from the category of the angels and beings from the category of the archangels, for better or for worse, by nature, by Lucifer or by Ahriman. [IMAGE REMOVED FROM PREVIEW] You get an image of human nature when you define it here.
So that we can say: language and singing have been driven out of the whole of human nature by Ahriman. Once this is properly understood, something extraordinarily important for real life will arise.

Results 291 through 300 of 434

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