By Kim Munch Michelsen.
This started as a study of Thor and Sif in search of the divine feminine and an understanding of who Thor was. Often Odin gets more attention today whereas Thor was the god that where nearer humanity then. But it lead on to the history of Michael and Sophia, as Thor and Sif were the perfect starting point.
This is a collection of puzzle pieces describing Michael and Sophia in various times and locations and shouldn't necessarily be read consecutively, read what your intuition leads you to.
Steiner has some very interesting lectures on Thor and his wife Sif on the development of the human 'I'. I have not hitherto fully understood the importance of these two, as I didn’t have the full context.
They are the main actors in the human evolution through Kali Yuga, with the primary goal of giving man the ‘I’ so he can develop Beauty, Truth and caring Love. They are also known as Krishna and Radha through whom we know the larger plan for Kali Yuga. We know them also as Yahve and his Asherah or and their human forms Moses and Zipporah, although the feminine side has been hidden behind Lucifer or, in the Norse mythology, Loki. The human forms of Thor and Sif are Tjálfi and Röskva.
Here with Shekinah, the Dweller Within
In Hindu scripts they are also known as Dyaus Pita, the Sky Father, and Prithvi Mātā, the Earth Mother, or together known as Dyavapṛthivi. Prihhvi correspond to Lakshmi and Dyaus to Vishnu.
It is important but difficult to grasp that the gods have a human alter-ego, this is how they develop the physical form in whose picture humanity is created, creation takes time and is hard work.
The Indians describe it thus: Krishna and the Sun Hero Arjuna have earlier been on earth as Narayana and Nara, where Nara means Human, and Narayana is the deity. Nara and Narayana are two bodies, one soul. See Nara-Narayana. The Sun Hero Nara or Saint Narada is the world teacher who leads humanity through the development from the beginning to the end of Earth, in whose steps humanity treads. His personality and skills are described here: Saint Narada. In Bhakti and Narada is Narada's mission through Kali Yuga described, where Bhakti represents Radha or the seed of Manas we all should create out of our purified astral body. In our time Vishnu and Lakshmi incarnate as Kalki and Padma.
In the Egyptian pantheon, some pharaohs are shown with a large sculpture of Horus behind their own lesser sculpture. Following Steiner, both Isis and Osiris are known to have walked the earth. Osiris was split in many parts, he was the seed of Manas out of what humanity should develop Manas, through the help of Isis. In the Gilgamesh ode we have Gilgamesh and Shamhat as the Avatars of Shamash and Ishtar/Inanna.
Shamash or Utu is the Mesopotamian Sun god, the god of justice, morality, and truth, and the twin of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna/Ishtar the Queen of Heaven. He rode through the heavens in his sun chariot and saw all things that happened through the day. He was the enforcer of divine justice and aided those in distress. Thor and Shamash is very alike and Sif is the Queen of Heaven.
The female goddesses are often connected through a little bird. Inanna, Ishtar (Sumerian ninna meaning owl can also be translated as the Akkadian kilili, which is also a name or epithet for Ishtar), Athene, and Lakshmi all have the wise owl as a symbol. Zipporah, the wife of Moses, means little bird, and she symbolizes Manas, wisdom, Sophia, and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
One of the greater mysteries is who and what Anthroposophia is, and I have worked with this mystery through the last fifteen years and slowly found more and more puzzle pieces. With Thor and Sif I may have found the last major pieces, they are Anthropos and Sophia, and they become one in our time, within us but also through the union of Tjálfi and Röskva, their physical manifestation. Their union is the result of the Alchemical Wedding of the feminine and masculine in man, the union of Moon and Sun, the union of the astral and etheric body. She is the highest developed Moon being, Sophia, and he is the highest developed Sun being, Michael, the Archangel of the Sun. The gods outer story is our inner story.
In the pre-Christian period, they worked through the Celts where they build the foundation for the ‘I’ and in the post-Christian period after 1000AC they worked on the ‘I’ in the North European countries.
Rudolf Steiner said that names weren't random in previous times, so look for similarities, even modern scientists look for similarities, but even though similar names don't seem to have a shared root, they can be connected, like Mahakala and Michael, Krishna and Christ. Symbols and behavior are extremely important too. Mead, Soma and Vine are not random knowledge, it has a specific meaning at a specific time in the development of man and connect a number of deities to a specific being. Ideas are connected to specific beings, they are the ideas and different beings aren't the same idea. If a true match is found more and more will point in the same direction. There should be an underlying shared pattern of ideas.
Rudolf Steiner’s texts is in the following indented and in another typeface.
From Rudolf Steiner: The Mission of Folk-Souls Lecture 8
Hence the Germanic Scandinavians have an interest in an angelic figure who possesses special power, but who at the same time is closely related to the separate human being and his individuality.
That angelic figure is Thor. Thor can only be recognized by knowing that in him one must recognize a Being who might indeed have been very advanced if he had evolved himself normally further, but who made the renunciation comparatively early, and remained behind at the stage of the Angel, in order that at the time when in the course of the soul's evolution the ‘I’ should awake, he might become Guide in the soul-world of the Germanic Scandinavian countries.
Thor remained behind as an Angel; and transmits to the ‘I’ spiritual powers of the Archangel, see The Mission of the Individual Folk-Souls - Synopses.
Who is the bringer of the ‘I’, the I AM? Yahve is the I AM and reminds in many ways about Thor. Thor is kind of introducing alcohol in the northern countries, just as he did in the Chaldean tradition as Noah. Alcohol was a means to isolate man from the spiritual to create the conditions for the development of the lower ego and consecutively the ‘I’. Thor uses Mead like Indra uses Soma. See later under Hu and Zeritwen by Steiner.
What one feels so directly in Thor as being related to the individual human ‘I’ is, that that which was to be carried into every single ‘I’ from the spiritual world, could actually be so carried in. …
Speech is there before the ’I’ is born. Hence the ‘I’ is everywhere felt to be the son of that Being who gives speech [Odin]. In the imprinting of the separate ‘I’ Thor is specially concerned, and that which in the microcosm corresponds to the event in the macrocosm, is the pulsation of the blood. …
Odin is the Father and Thor the Son, the First and Second Pillar of the Earth in the time before Christ.
He felt the Thor-force in his ‘I’ as the constant returning of the hammer of Thor into the hand of Thor, he felt the force of one of the most powerful Angels that had ever been known and revered, because he was a mighty Being who was seen to have remained behind at the Angel stage. The way in which the spiritual force holds the physical body together, is expressed in the Germanic Scandinavian mythology where it says, that the ‘I’ is that which, when the soul and body are woven, holds them both together. …
Thor wades through the rivers Körmt and Örmt, to sit as judge at the immense world tree, Ygdrasil.
One of the most powerful Angels that have ever been known and revered Indicates the archangel Michael. Thor’s hammer doesn’t really look like a hammer, more like a sword grip where the blade was a bolt of lightning, a flaming sword. The Finnish alter-ego of Thor has a Flaming Sword.
Thor was the angel that fought evil and chaos in the early earth. He was always wandering around in the human realm, he was always near, where the other gods were riding on horses quickly from place to place he encompassed the earth with his etheric body. This etheric body is what Steiner talks about in connection with Zarathustra, Moses, Krishna, Christ, Paul and Christian Rosenkreutz.
Enoch was the angelic warrior that fought chaos in the biblical context, like Marduk, who was raised and became the Face of God, replacing the previous Michael when he raised. Other fighters of the Serpent are Apollo (Pythius), Horus (Set/Typhon), Krishna (Kāliya) and Ram. Marduk who fought the dragon Tiamat with thunder and lightning as weapons in his storm-chariot is also much like Thor, and Steiner says he is Michael.
Interestingly, some pronunciations of Horus reminds of “Thor” or “Tor” in Scandinavian spelling. The wife of Horus is Hathor. Claudius Aelianus wrote that Egyptians called the god Apollo "Horus" in their own language.
Following Steiner, the pair of goats that pulled Thor's chariot symbolizes the star sign the Twin/Gemini and it connects Thor to the Persian time before 3000 BC.
Thor closely resembles other Indo-European deities associated with thunder, like the Celtic Taranis, the Estonian Taara (or Tharapita), the Baltic Perkūnas, the Slavic Perun, and particularly the Vedic Indra, whose red hair and thunderbolt weapon the vajra are obvious parallels. Indra's slaying of Vritra reminds about Thor's battle with Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent. Wikipedia.
Ninurta slaying the Seven-headed Serpent:
Ninurta slaying the Seven-headed Serpent
The Seven-headed Beast of the Revelation that is slain by Archangel Michael:
Seven-headed Beast in the Revelation that are slain by Michael
The thunder gods are also solar gods, and science have found out that lightning is caused by solar activity, that atmospharic activity is not enough in itself to create the large electrical differences. The thundergods are also gods of harwest, here the sun becomes milder again. See Evidence for solar wind modulation of lightning
By employing a practice known as interpretatio germanica during the Roman period, ancient Germanic peoples adopted the Latin weekly calendar and replaced the names of Roman gods with their own, Thursday replaced the day of Jove, Jupiter.
The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans, and in these works, Thor is frequently referred to – via a process known as interpretatio romana – as either the Roman god Jupiter (also known as Jove) or the Greco-Roman god Hercules (Tacitus.)
Rudolf Steiner hints at the connection between Thor and Hercules:
We find in the ‘Germania’ that he knew that in the North men had a God [Thor], that was the same God as Hercules [and Jupiter, ] and so on. That is very significant and it points to something very deep and of great meaning. It shows that in those ancient times there was a certain common consciousness concerning spiritual things.
Hercules was under protection of Athena, the group soul we also know as Sif, ruling where the olives grew. Hercules once hold the Earth with the help of Athena instead of Atlas, but only shortly. In the nineteenth century, the Archangel Michael became an Archai, a spirit of Time and Personality, whereby he became the angel of the whole earth where he before had been a folk-soul, now he took the earth on his shoulders together with Sophia.
The similarities between Hercules and Odysseus are large, especially the connection to Athena, and they are both avatars of the same being, as also Homer was, also inspired by Athena. See On the Odysseus Saga
Indra is the king of Heaven and the gods, a Cosmic Giant, the protector of humanity, and married to Indrani who may be an Avatar of Lakshmi/Radha. He is associated with lightning, thunder, storms, rains, river flows and war. Indra's mythology and powers are similar to other deities such as Jupiter, Perun, Perkūnas, Zalmoxis, Taranis, Thor, and Marduk.
Indra’s attributes include four arms, and he is often presented alongside a bolt of lightning, or with a lance, sword, bow and arrow, spear, and a net and conch shell. He can also be represented with two arms, with eyes covering his entire body.
He is powerful, and he kills the great evil named Vritra who is a serpent or dragon blocking the great rivers of India. Indra destroys Vritra and his "deceiving forces", and thereby brings rains and sunshine to humanity, the end of Atlantis. He is worshipped by the Kalash people, so he is known in ancient Hinduism.
Indra is the king of the gods, the Second Logos, which changes in every Manvantara — a cyclic period in Hindu cosmology. Each Manvantara has its own Indra.
Indra is praised as the highest god in 250 hymns of the Rigveda – dated between 1700 and 1100 BCE. He is co-praised as the supreme in another 50 hymns, thus making him one of the most celebrated Vedic deities. Wikipedia.
From The Archangel Michael : his mission and ours : selected lectures and writings / Rudolf Steiner : edited by Christopher Bamford.
Intimations of the Archangel Michael in Different Traditions
From the the Rig Veda:
Let me now sing the heroic deeds of Indra, the first that the thunderbolt-wielder performed.
▪️He killed the Dragon and pierced an opening for the waters; he split open the bellies of mountains. [Marduk splitting Tiamat in heaven and earth.]
He killed the Dragon who lay upon the mountain; Tvastr fashioned the roaring thunderbolt for him.
In Celtic mythology, Taranis or Taranus is the god of thunder, who was worshipped primarily in Gaul, Gallaecia, Britain, and Ireland but also in the Rhineland and Danube regions, amongst others. Taranis, along with Esus and Toutatis as part of a sacred triad, was mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan in his epic poem Pharsalia as a Celtic deity to whom human sacrificial offerings were made. Many representations of a bearded god with a thunderbolt in one hand and a wheel with six or eight spokes in the other hand have been recovered from Gaul. Based on Wikipedia.
The wheel is from a chariot and may be connected with Thor’s chariot. The wheel reminds about Krishna, who through the wheel of fate or karma controls what happens on earth.
One of the earliest symbols for Christ:
This official story is parallel to the Egyptian story with Osiris, Isis and Horus, except that Ea is more active than Osiris. Damkina or Ninḫursaĝ is the same as Hathor who is the same as Isis, is here not as active. Steiner kind of merged Ea and Isis into one being, the I AM of Sophia working through the astral Luciferic.
Ea or Enki was Marduk’s father. He created Marduk together with Damkina (Ninḫursaĝ), in the heart of the universe. The splendor of Marduk exceeded Ea and the other gods, and Ea called him "My son, the Sun!". Ea voluntarily recognized the superiority of the son and handed the power over to him.
The gods weren't strong enough to handle the gods of chaos, the Annunaki, especially the dragon of the primordial sea Tiamat and Kingu, but Marduk, who was a very young god, took the challenge.
Marduk was given a throne, a scepter, vestments, and weapons, and sat over the other gods, who honored him. Marduk has a number of weapons to fight Tiamat and Kingu – bow, quiver, mace, a net, and bolts of lightning, seven winds, and his mightiest weapon, the rain-flood, and he could put his body aflame.
In his storm-chariot drawn by four creatures he advanced. Marduk used a net to entangle Tiamat; Tiamat attempted to swallow Marduk, like Moses, but 'the Evil Wind' filled her so she became distended, Marduk then fired his arrow, hitting her heart.
The other gods attempted to flee but, Marduk captured them, broke their weapons, and netted them. Kingu was taken to Uggae (the Angel of Death), the 'Tablet of Destinies' taken from him. Marduk then split Tiamat's remains in two – from one half he made the sky – in it he made places for Anu, Enlil, and Ea. This may also be connected to the End of Atlantis, where the sky became visible after the Flood. The 'Tablet of Destinies' is similar to the Wheel of Fate.
Marduk became the creator of humanity. Marduk was depicted as a human, often with his symbol the snake-dragon which he had taken over from the god Tishpak. Another symbol was the spade. Marduk is associated with water, vegetation, judgment, and magic, with the etheric world.
Marduk had a son Nabu, who is the ancient Mesopotamian patron god of literacy, the rational arts, scribes and wisdom, and the inventor of writing. The Akkadian "nabû" means "to announce, prophesize", something like Enkidu. As the god of writing, Nabu inscribed the fates assigned to men on the ‘Tablet of Destinies.’ He rode on a winged dragon known as Sirrush that originally belonged to his father Marduk. As the god of wisdom and a divine messenger associated with the planet Mercury, Nabu was linked with the Greek Hermes, the Roman Mercury, and the Egyptian Thoth. From Wikipedia: Nabu.
Worshipper between Nabu and Marduk, standing on their
servant dragon Mušḫuššu. 8th century BCE.
Sometimes Steiner gives hints about connections between different religious or esoteric traditions, but here he explicitly mentions that Marduk was Michael.
The Cross of the Sun God
From True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation, Lecture One, ga243. In German.
The dimming of consciousness during sleep is a consequence of human evolution. A few thousand years ago waking life was not so clear and lucid as today. Objects had no clearly defined contours, they were blurred. They radiated spiritual qualities in various forms. There was not the same abrupt transition from sleep to waking life.
The men of that epoch were still able to distinguish these two states, and the environment of their waking life was called ‘Apsu.’
This life of flux and movement experienced in sleep, this realm that blurred the clear distinction between the minerals, plants and animals of waking life, was called ‘Tiamat.’
Now the teaching in the Chaldean Mystery Schools was that when man, in a state of sleep, shared the flux and movement of Tiamat [the Luciferic, the Midgard Serpent], he was closer to truth and reality than when he lived his conscious life amongst minerals, plants and animals.
Marduk and Tiamat or Ninurta and Ansû
Tiamat was nearer to the Ground of the world, more closely related to the world of man than Apsu. Apsu was more remote. Tiamat represented something that lay nearer to man.
But in the course of time Tiamat underwent changes and this was brought to the notice of the neophytes in the Mystery Schools. From the life of flux and movement of Tiamat emerged demoniacal forms, equine shapes with human heads, leonine forms with the heads of angels. They arose out of the warp and woof of Tiamat and these demoniacal forms became hostile to man.
Then there appeared in the world a powerful Being, Ea. Anyone today who has an ear for sounds can feel how the conjunction of these two vowels points to that powerful Being who, according to these old Mystery teachings, stood at man's side to help him when the demons of Tiamat grew strong.
Ea or Ia, became later — if one anticipates the particle ‘Soph’ — Soph-Ea, Sophia. Ea implies approximately abstract wisdom, wisdom that permeates all things. Soph is a particle that suggests (approximately) a state of being.
Sophia, Sophea, Sopheia, the all-pervading, omnipresent wisdom sent to mankind her son, then known as Marduk, later called Micha-el, the Micha-el who is invested with authority from the hierarchy of the Angels. He is the same Being as Marduk, the son of Ea, wisdom — Marduk-Micha-el.
According to the Mystery teachings Marduk-Micha-el was great and powerful and all the demoniacal beings such as horses with human heads and leonine forms with angels' heads — all these surging, mobile, demoniacal forms, conjoined as the mighty Tiamat, were arrayed against him.
Marduk-Micha-el was powerful enough to command the storm wind that sweeps through the world. All that Tiamat embodied was seen as a living reality, and rightly so, for that is how they experienced it.
All these demons together were envisaged as the adversary, a powerful dragon which embodied all the demoniacal powers born out of Tiamat, the night. And this dragon-being, breathing fire and fury, advanced upon Marduk.
Micha-el first smote him with various weapons and then drove the whole force of his storm-wind into the dragon's entrails so that Tiamat burst asunder and was scattered abroad. [The “Poem of Creation” says: “The North Wind bore (it) to places undisclosed.”]
And so Marduk-Micha-el was able to create out of him the Heavens above and the Earth beneath. Thus arose the Above and the Below.
▪️Such was the teaching of the Mysteries. The eldest son of Ea, wisdom, has vanquished Tiamat and has fashioned from one part of him the Heavens above and from the other the Earth below.
And if, O man, you lift your eyes to the stars, you will see one part of that which Marduk-Micha-el formed in the Heavens out of the fearful abyss of Tiamat for the benefit of mankind.
And if you look below, where the plants grow out of the mineralized Earth, where minerals begin to take form, you will find the other part which the son of Ea, wisdom, has recreated for the benefit of mankind.
Thus the ancient Chaldeans looked back to the formative period of the world, to the forming from the formless; they saw into the workshop of creation and perceived a living reality.
These demon forms of the night, all these nocturnal monsters, the weaving, surging beings of Tiamat had been transformed by Marduk-Micha-el into the stars above and the Earth beneath.
All the demons transformed by Marduk-Micha-el into shining stars, all that grows out of the Earth, the transformed skin and tissue of Tiamat — this is the form in which the men of ancient times pictured whatsoever came to them through the old attributes of the soul. That information they accounted as knowledge.
When I read this text sixteen years ago I was mystified by the incarnation of Orpheus without his feminine side, I had a feeling it was an important puzzle piece, but I hadn't any other pieces to match it with. Now I understand that Eurydice is Sophia or Sif who can't work in him, that he has no access to Manas as the consciousness soul isn't developed. This is a tragedy, he is only half!
Apollo or Orpheus is an important step in developing I-consciousness, an expression of Michael. See more on Apollo, Orpheus, and the relation to Horus and Moses here.
From The Christ Impulse and the Development of the Ego-Consciousness, Lecture 1
▪️Once upon a time there was a primeval Teacher in the civilised parts of Europe — a primeval Teacher who in this sense was a primeval Bard, the pioneer of all the ancient Bards and minstrels. He taught on the physical plane by means of music, and he taught in such a way that something was thereby communicated to the sentient-soul, which was like the rising and shining of a sun.
▪️What tradition has retained concerning this great Teacher was later on gathered together by the Greeks — who were still influenced by him from the West as they were influenced in a different way from the East.
▪️This was embodied in their conception of Apollo, who was a Sun-God and at the same time the God of music. This figure of Apollo dates back, however, to that great Teacher of primeval times, who put into the human soul the faculty which appears to-day as the power of clear thinking.
The Greeks also tell of a pupil of this Great Teacher of humanity — of one who became a pupil in a very special way. How could anyone become the “pupil” of this Being?
In those bygone times, when this Being was to work in the manner just described, he was not, of course, encompassed in the physical organisation; he transcended that which walks the earth as physical man.
A man with an ordinary sentient-soul might have been receptive to the effects of the music, but he could not have aroused them in others.
Apollo.
A higher Individuality had come down and was like the radiance of what lived in the cosmos outside. It became necessary, however, that in the fourth Post-Atlantean epoch of civilisation, in the Graeco-Latin period, he should descend again — that he should descend to the human stage and make use of all the faculties that are in man.
Yet, although he made use, so to speak, of all the human faculties, he could not quite descend. For, in order to bring about what I have described, he required faculties transcending those possessed by a human organisation in the fourth post-Atlantean period.
The effects of this music even then included what was to be found in the spiritual soul [consciousness soul]; and it could not at that time have lived in an individuality organised only for the intellectual soul.
Hence, although incarnated in such a form, he still had to hold something back. His incarnation in the fourth epoch was such, that although he completely filled the whole human form, yet he as man, dwelling within that form, had, as it were, something within him that extended far beyond it; he knew something of a spiritual world, but he could not make use of this knowledge.
▪️He had a soul which extended beyond his body. Humanly speaking, there was something tragic in the fact that the Individuality who had acted as a great Teacher in the third epoch of civilisation, should have had to incarnate again in a form in which his soul was to a great extent outside it — and yet that he could not make any use of this superior and unusual faculty of soul. This kind of incarnation was called a “Son of Apollo”, because that, which had dwelt on earth before, was reincarnated in a very complicated and not in a direct way.
▪️A Son of Apollo bore within him as soul what Mysticism designates by the symbol of the ‘feminine’ element; he could not bear all of it within him, because it was in another world. His own feminine soul element was itself in another world to which he had no access but for which he longed, because a part of himself was there.
▪️This marvellous inner tragedy of the reincarnated Teacher of former times has been wonderfully preserved in Greek Mythology under the name of ‘Orpheus’ — the name given to the reincarnated Apollo, or “Son of Apollo.”
▪️This tragedy of the soul is represented in a marvellous way in the figures of ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’. Eurydice was soon torn from Orpheus. She dwelt in another world; but Orpheus still had the power, through his music, of teaching the beings of the nether world. He obtained permission from them to take Eurydice back with him. But he must not look around him; for that would mean inner death; — at all events it would bring about a loss of what he formerly was and which he cannot now take into himself.
Thus in this incarnation of Apollo as Orpheus, we have again a sort of descent of a Bodhisattva — if we may use this Eastern term — to Buddha-hood. We might quote a number of such Beings who stand out from age to age as the great Teachers of humanity and who always had a very special experience at the time of their deepest descent. The Buddha experiences the bliss of inspiring the whole of humanity.
▪️That Bodhisattva, whose memory is preserved externally under the name of ‘Apollo,’ had an individual experience: he was to prepare the individuality, the quality of the Ego. He experiences the tragedy of the Ego; he experiences the fact that this ego is, in the present state of man as regards this attribute of his, not entirely with him. Man is struggling up to the higher ego. That was foreshadowed for the Greeks by the Buddha or Bodhisattva in Orpheus.
Mithras is another presentation of Michael or Thor, fighting the powers of the bull, as also Gilgamesh, an avatar of Shamash, did together with Enkidu. Shamash in Hebrew is Shemesh or Shemesh’el, Michael. Mithras leads on to Christ. Here the group soul is important too, as we know as Sif from the Nordic mythology of Isis from the Egyptian mythology.
Mithras fighting the Bull in man, together with the snake as Lucifer or the Midgaard Serpent and the dog as Ahriman or the Fenris Wolf, and the scorpion as the Asuras or Hela.
Mithras rushes through the world with a sword in his hand that he thrusts into the lower nature to slay it; under him the lower nature dies. Christ offers Himself as the Lamb of God, who takes the lower nature into Himself in order to redeem it.
From Materialism and the Task of Anthroposophy Lecture IV
The worship of Mithras was considered as a concrete worship relating to the sun forces in man. The only thing this Mithras worship did not perceive was the fact that in the Mystery of Golgotha this sun force itself had descended as a spiritual entity and had united itself with the human being Jesus of Nazareth.
Now there existed schools of wisdom in the East up until the fourth century A.D. that by and by received reports and became aware of the Mystery of Golgotha, of Christ. The further east we go in our investigations, the clearer this becomes. These schools then attempted to spread a certain teaching throughout the world, and for a time there was a tendency to let flow into the Mithras cult what agrees with the following supersensory perception: The true Mithras is the Christ; Mithras is his predecessor.
The Christ force must be poured into those forces in man that vanquish the bull. To turn the Mithras worship into a worship of Christ was something that was intensely alive in the first Christian centuries up until the fourth century. One might say that the stream intending to Christianize this Mithras worship followed after the spreading of the latter. A synthesis between Christendom and the Mithras worship was striven for.
An ancient, significant image of man's being — Mithras riding on and vanquishing the bull — was to be brought into relationship with the Christ Being. One might say that a quite glorious endeavor existed in this direction, and in a certain respect it was a powerful one.
From Building Stones for an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, Lecture 9
In order to grasp the true spirit of the Mithras Mysteries whose influence spread far into the West of Europe during the first post-Christian centuries, we must be aware that they were based upon a central core of belief (which was right for the world of Antiquity and perfectly justified up to the time of the Mystery of Golgotha), that the community or the individual communities, for example, the folk-communities or other groups within the folk-communities consisted not only of the individual units or members, but that, if they were to have any reality, communities must be imbued with a community spirit which has a super-sensible origin.
A community was determined not only by the counting of heads, but for the people of Antiquity it represented the external form, the incarnation, if I may use the word in this connection, of a genuinely existing communal spirit.
The aim of those who were received into these Mysteries was to participate in this spirit, to share the thoughts of this group-soul; not to insulate themselves from the community by obstinately pursuing their own egoistic thoughts, feelings and volitional impulses, but to live in such a way that they were receptive to the thoughts of the group-soul.
In the Mithras Mysteries in particular the priests maintained that this union with the group-soul cannot be achieved if one looks upon a larger community simply as an external manifestation, for thereby that which lies in the community spirit is in the main obscured.
If God looked away all of creation would disappear, so he could never relax, the angels was coworkers but they couldn't replace his attention. Enoch was placed before God as his Countenance, and he learned all of the creation so he could relieve God. Enoch then created the souls of man and planned their lives to the end of eternity. The Countenance or Face of God are the title given to Michael.
From The Great Initiates by Édouard Schuré, 40. The Essenes.
They then communicated to him the doctrine of the Divine Word, already taught by Krishna in India, by the priests of Osiris in Egypt, by Orpheus and Pythagoras in Greece and known among the prophets under the name the Mystery of the Son of Man and of the Son of God. …
With great emotion he heard the leader of the Order explain these words which are still read today in the Book of Enoch:
"From the beginning, the Son of Man was in the Mysteries. The Most High kept him in His presence, and manifested him to His elect . . . But the kings will be frightened and will bow their faces to earth, and fear will seize them when they shall see the Son of Woman sitting on the throne of his glory.
Then the Elect will call all the forces of heaven, all the saints from on high, and the power of God. Then the Cherubim, the Seraphim, the Ophanim, all the angels of Power, all the angels of the Lord, that is, of the Elect and of the other Power, who serve on earth and above the waters, will lift up their voices."
From The Festivals and Their Meaning - IV, Michaelmas
…, Michael was called the ‘Countenance of Jehovah’; men preferred to speak of the representative through whom Jahve revealed Himself to mankind as in an external countenance.…
If one wants to understand the evolution of mankind, one must understand that Michael too has evolved: one must understand that it is the same Being who paved the way for the preparation of the Mystery of Golgotha, and who now in our day paves the way for the understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha.
Then, however, he was a Folk Spirit, now he is a Time Spirit; then he was the Messenger of Jahve, now he is the Messenger of Christ.
Enoch is uplifted from earth, he was the angelic being who we know as the Scythian Ram, who fought for the Solar powers against the old Lunar powers, as Édouarc Schuré describes in the book, "The Great Initiates." He changes the world from India to Egypt. Ram or Rama, is a righteous man, who always do the right, matching the description of Enoch.
▪️Enoch was placed before God as the Countenance of God.
22.4 And I fell prone and bowed down to the Lord, and the Lord with his lips said to me:
22.5 Have courage, Enoch, do not fear, arise and stand before my face into eternity.
22.10 And the Lord summoned one of his archangels by name Pravuil, whose knowledge was quicker in wisdom than the other archangels, who wrote all the deeds of the Lord; and the Lord said to Pravuil: Bring out the books from my store-houses, and a reed of quick-writing, and give (it) to Enoch, and deliver to him the choice and comforting books out of your hand.
▪️He was told all the secrets of creation, he should be the face of God, so the creation didn't disappear if God moved his face from his creation. And he created the souls of man into eternity.
23.1 And he was telling me all the works of heaven, earth and sea, and all the elements, their passages and goings, and the thunderings of the thunders, the sun and moon, the goings and changes of the stars, the seasons, years, days, and hours, the risings of the wind, the numbers of the angels, and the formation of their songs, and all human things, the tongue of every human song and life, the commandments, instructions, and sweet-voiced singings, and all things that it is fitting to learn.
23.2 And Pravuil told me: All the things that I have told you, we have written. Sit and write all the souls of mankind, however many of them are born, and the places prepared for them to eternity; for all souls are prepared to eternity, before the formation of the world.
23. 3 And all double thirty days and thirty nights, and I wrote out all things exactly, and wrote three hundred and sixty-six books.
▪️Enoch comes to know all of creation what the angels didn’t nor could.
24.1 And the Lord summoned me, and said to me: Enoch, sit down on my left with Gabriel.
24.2 And I bowed down to the Lord, and the Lord spoke to me: Enoch, beloved, all (that) you see, all things that are standing finished I tell to you even before the very beginning, all that I created from non-being, and visible (physical) things from invisible (spiritual).
24.3 Hear, Enoch, and take in these my words, for not to My angels have I told my secret, and I have not told them their rise, nor my endless realm, nor have they understood my creating, which I tell you to-day.
24.4 For before all things were visible (physical), I alone used to go about in the invisible (spiritual) things, like the sun from east to west, and from west to east.
24.5 But even the sun has peace in itself, while I found no peace, because I was creating all things, and I conceived the thought of placing foundations, and of creating visible (physical) creation.
▪️When Enoch have created all the books with wisdom he returns to Earth as Krishna, now very different from who he was as Ram.
33.5 If I turn away my face, then all things will be destroyed.
33.6 And apply your mind, Enoch, and know him who is speaking to you, and take thence the books which you yourself have written.
33.7 And I give you Samuil and Raguil, who led you up, and the books, and go down to earth, and tell your sons all that I have told you, and all that you have seen, from the lower heaven up to my throne, and all the troops.
33.8 For I created all forces, and there is none that resists me or that does not subject himself to me. For all subject themselves to my monarchy, and labour for my sole rule.
33.9 Give them the books of the handwriting, and they will read (them) and will know me for the creator of all things, and will understand how there is no other God but me.
33.10 And let them distribute the books of your handwriting – children to children, generation to generation, nations to nations.
Michael is the spirit who works, in the most eminent sense, with the freedom of man. Michael will always do what is necessary. You must not believe that Michael fails to do the right thing. From Michael's Battle and its Reflection on Earth
This text on the Archangel Michael is remarkable, it both puts humanity into the great picture of the spiritual world but also describes the role of Michael and his connectedness to humanity.
Quis ut Deus.
From Rudolf Steiner, The Michael Mystery, Lecture V, GA 26
"There is, to begin with, a very early age, in which one can only really speak of what goes on amongst divine-spiritual Beings. It is one series of the actions of gods, with which one has here to do.
Gods perform what the impulses of their own individual natures suggest to them. They find their appropriate satisfaction in this activity. And how they are affected by it all, is the sole matter in view.
Only in one corner of the field of the Gods' goings, may be seen something that looks like Mankind. Mankind is a part of the Gods' activity.
▪️There is one spiritual Being, however, who from the very first has turned his eyes upon mankind: this is Michael. He arranges, so to speak, the doings of the Gods, so that Man can exist in a cosmic corner.
▪️And his mode of activity in doing this, is analogous to that which displays itself later in Man as Intellect — only that, with him, it is an active stream of force, that flows throughout the Cosmos, introducing order of ideas, and bringing cause to effect in fact. In this force Michael is at work.
▪️It is his office to administer the Intellectuality of the Cosmos. He desires further progress, namely, that the force which works as Intelligence throughout the whole Cosmos, should hereafter be concentrated in the individuality of Man.
▪️The consequence is that there comes a time in the world's evolution, when the Cosmos no longer lives by its present, but by its past Intelligence, whilst the present Intelligence is in the human stream of evolution."
From Karmic Relationships, Volume III: Lecture VII: The New Age of Michael
Now he who ordered the Cosmic Intelligence which thus came to man along with the spiritual Revelations — he who ordered this Cosmic Intelligence, who had, so to speak, dominion over it, — is the same spiritual Being whom we, when we make use of our Christian terminology, call the Archangel Michael. He had to administer the Cosmic Intelligence in the cosmos.
We must make clear to ourselves what this really means. It is a fact that such human beings as Alexander the Great, though in a somewhat different context of ideas, had a distinct consciousness of the fact that their thoughts came to them by way of Michael. True, the spiritual Being whom we mean, was called by a different name. We are making use of the Christian terminology, but it is not the terminology that matters.
Such a man as Alexander the Great regarded himself as none other than a Missionary of Michael, an instrument of Michael. He could think in no other way than this: Michael is acting on the earth, and I am the instrument through which he acts. Such was the conception, and this gave him the strength of will in deed and action. Nor did a thinker in that time think differently than thus, that Michael was working in him and giving him the thoughts.
See also the Michael Stream.
From Spiritualization of Knowledge of Space. The Mission of Michael, GA 219
In the last third of the nineteenth century, the Spiritual Being we call Michael became the ruler, as it were, of everything of a spiritual character in human events on earth.
… Michael is the active being, the being who, as it were, pulses through our breath, our veins, our nerves, to the end that we may actively develop all that belongs to our full humanity in connection with the cosmos.
What stands before us as a challenge from Michael is that we become active in our very thoughts, working out our view of the world through our own inner activity. We belong truly to the Michael Age only when we do not sit down inactively and seek to let enlightenment come to us from within and from without. We must cooperate actively in what the world offers us by way of experiences and opportunities for observation.
Until the new epoch comes, you will live on the earth where Michael rules with his fiery sword. For a long time, the Archangel Michael's sword will play an important role on the earth.
Wherever this sword touches it will always cleanse. In the personal area, family, public area, and the people's life, a great change is happening which has never happened ever before, but everything will be for a good end. Why? Because the conditions of the present age are very favorable.…
▪️Now Archangel Michael is reigning and purifies the world with his fiery sword. It will not be long before all the kingdoms of the earth become kingdoms of the Lord. It is time and it is now, when there will be one flock and one Shepherd on the Earth.
The Michael Power and the Michael Will are none other than the Christ Will and the Christ Power, going before in order to implant in the right way into the Earth the Power of the Christ. From Rudolf Steiner’s Last Address.
Into the physical, etheric and astral body of Jesus of Nazareth had entered the whole Fire-Spirit [Archangel,] the one source of all the different sparks [I AM’s] that lived in the human beings. This Fire-Spirit is the Christ, the only divine Being who lived on earth in this form... From The Mystery of Golgotha.
There are many Beings of the same hierarchical rank, but this particular Being who is known esoterically by the name of Michael is as superior to his companions as the Sun is to the planets — Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, and so on. He — Michael — is the most eminent, the most significant Being in the Hierarchy of the Archangels. The ancients called him the ‘Countenance of God’. From Christ at the Time of the Mystery of Golgotha.
The pre-existence of Christ asserts the existence of Christ before his incarnation as Jesus. John 1:1–18 creates the foundation for understanding Christ, the Son and Logos.
John 1:1-18, New King James Version:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not [a]comprehend it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That[b] was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His [c]own, and His [d]own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the [e]right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me [f]is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ”
16 [g]And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten [h]Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.…
John 17:4-6
4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together [a]with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.…
John 17:24
24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
According to Thomas Aquinas, "the humane nature" of Christ was created and began in time, where "the subsistent subject" is both uncreated and eternal.
A clear idea of Christ's pre-existence is given in Manichaean thought, where he is conferred the name Jesus the Splendour. Considered a divine being, he was believed to have been the entity to lead Adam into eating from the Tree of Knowledge instead of the Devil who, according to Manichaeism, actually wanted humanity to stay away from it so they would remain trapped in matter and never find gnosis. Likewise, Manichaeans associated Christ with the Tree of Life and saw him as a holy emanation of the Father of Greatness. This is also according to Steiner. Wikipedia
Some see Michael as the pre-incarnate Christ. Those who held this and similar views include Hengstenberg, Dr. W. L. Alexander, Prof. Douglas, Jacobus Ode, Campegius Vitringa, Philip Melanchthon, Broughton, Junius, Hävernick Adam Clarke, Samuel Horsley, Cloppenburgh, Vogelsangius, Pierce, and the Anglican bishop Robert Clayton (died 1758) who proposed that Michael was the Logos and Gabriel the Holy Spirit. Wikipedia.
Christ as the Charioteer of the Sun - Saint Peters Basilica.
Just as man receives life into himself, so does this Being radiate life through the whole of our universe. This is the Being Who has the power to make the great sacrifice and Who is inscribed in the Zodiac as the Being Who for the sake of our world offers Himself in sacrifice.
Just as man strives upwards into the Zodiac, so does this Being send us His sacrificial gift from Aries — which is related to Him as Libra is related to man. And just as man turns his ‘I’ upwards to Libra, so does this Being radiate His very Self over our sphere in sacrifice.
This Being is called the “Mystical Lamb,” for Lamb and Aries are the same; therefore the description ‘Sacrificial Lamb’ or ‘Ram’ is given to Christ.
Christ belongs to the cosmos as a whole. His I reaches to Aries and thus He becomes Himself the “Great Sacrifice,” is related with the whole of mankind and in a certain sense the beings and forces present on the earth are His creations.
The configuration of forces is such that He could become the Creator of these beings in the constellation of Aries, or the Lamb. The designation “Sacrificial Lamb” or “Mystical Lamb” is drawn from the heavens themselves.
This is one of the aspects revealed to us when from our circumscribed existence we look up into the heavens and perceive the interworking of heavenly forces and beings in cosmic space. See the Cosmic Christ.
Michael becomes man or rather the masculine Archangel of Humanity, the Second Logos, in whose picture man is created. It means that the I AM of Michael permeates the masculine human archangel and Sophia permeates the feminine human archangel, the Third Logos. It can be said that the union of Michael and Sophia is the union of macrocosm and microcosm, and they are together Christ. The deeds of Christ are the steps that led toward Golgotha where Christ Jesus entered the earth, and became unified with the archangel of humanity.
From Rudolf Steiner, The Fifth Gospel, III
The normal person is a microcosm related to the macrocosm, an image of the whole macrocosm. What is expressed in the human physical body can be understood in this way. What the human being on earth becomes is a reflection of the cosmos.
The reverse is the case with the Christ-Being. The macrocosmic Sun-Being formed itself according to the image of the human microcosm, contracted and pressed more and more until it resembled the human microcosm. Just the reverse!
Anthropos and Sophia
At the beginning of the Christ's earthly life, just after the baptism in the Jordan, the connection with the body of Jesus of Nazareth was loosest. The Christ-Being was still almost completely outside the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore what the Christ-Being did as he walked on the earth was completely over-earthly. He healed in a way which no earthly force could heal; he spoke to the people with such intensity that it was a divine intensity.
But gradually he became more and more similar to the body of Jesus of Nazareth, contracted, pressed more and more into earthly conditions until the divine power deserted him. The Christ-Being went through this process as he came more and more to resemble the body of Jesus of Nazareth, something which, in a certain sense, can be considered to be a devolving evolution. The Christ-Being had to feel the godly power weakening as he became similar to the body of Jesus of Nazareth. A god gradually became a man. …
The way of the Passion went from the baptism in the Jordan to powerlessness. And soon the masses, who had previously been amazed at the Christ-Being's over-earthly miraculous power, no longer admired him, but stood in front of the cross mocking the weakness of the god who became man with the words: You helped others, now help yourself! That was the Passion path—endless suffering, to which was added sorrow for humanity at that moment of the mystery of Golgotha.
That pain and suffering, however, gave birth to the spirit which poured out on the apostles at Pentecost. From that pain was born the all-embracing cosmic love which descended with the baptism in the Jordan from the over-earthly, heavenly spheres into the earthly sphere – which became similar to a human body and realized the moment of highest divine powerlessness in order to give birth to the impulse which we know as the Christ-Impulse in the subsequent evolution of humanity.
Christ in the human form of Michael or Anthropos and the human form of Sophia has always been our companions in whose footsteps we have trodden. He was the Manu and the leader of the Platonic Stream and she was the leader of the Aristotelian stream.
Christ will take the side of man and become his advisor. This is not meant only as an image, but people will actually receive the advice they need from the living Christ, who will become their advisor and friend, who will speak to human souls, like a person physically walking next to us. ~R. Steiner GA 152
See The True Nature of the Second Coming - According to Steiner.
In Skáldskaparmál, Snorri describes how Loki cuts off Sif's hair as a prank. Thor forces Loki to have a headpiece created made of gold to replace Sif's locks. Loki gets the dwarfs, Dvalin and Brok, the Sons of Ivaldi, to create a headpiece. Along with the headpiece, the dwarfs creates Odin's spear, Gungnir, the ship Skíðblaðnir and the boar Gullinbursti for Freyr, the multiplying ring Draupnir for Odin, and the mighty hammer Mjöllnir for Thor.
▪️That Sif’s headpiece is created together with and even causes the creation of the most important and powerful items in Norse mythology tells that she has a central role in the mythology. It's comparable with Zipporah who saves Moses life, when making the bond between them. Sif’s name describes also the bond to Thor, but also to and between people.
Sif appears in Skáldskaparmál as a synonym for "earth" and is mentioned as a gold-keeping woman, reminding of Lakshmi [Radha], Vishnu’s wife. Sif has been linked with Ravdna, the consort of the Sami thunder god Horagalles. Red berries of rowan were holy to Ravdna and the name Ravdna resembles the North Germanic words for the tree (for example, Old Norse reynir). According to Skáldskaparmál, the rowan is called "the salvation of Thor" because Thor once saved himself by clinging to it. It has been theorized that Sif was once conceived in the form of a rowan to which Thor clung. Based on Wikipedia.
What does Sif’s hair symbolize? I thought of Indras Net, but I think there could be one hair for each soul that are part of her group soul. Loki is kind of fighting for the same souls, and he removed them but had involuntarily to help the souls back.
Horus's wife, Hathor, was praised for her beautiful hair too. Hathor lost a lock of hair that represented her sexual allure. It's compared with Horus's loss of his divine Eye and Set's loss of his testicles during the struggle between the two gods, implying that the loss of Hathor's lock was as catastrophic for her as their losses were for them.
From Mission of Folk-Souls (1929): Lecture 10
Each individual people, yea, even all the smaller subdivisions of peoples have their special task in this great collective picture; and you will perceive from what has been said, that in a certain respect it was just to the pre-Christian and post-Christian cultures of Europe that the task, the mission was given to educate the ‘I’ through the different stages of the human being, to form it and gradually to develop it.
As we have shown to be the case in the Germanic Scandinavian people, the ‘I’ was in primal ages still clairvoyantly shown to man from the spiritual world. It was shown that this ‘I’ was bestowed upon man by an Angelic Being, who stands between man and the Folk-soul, by Donar or Thor. We have seen that each single individual felt himself to be ‘I’-less, impersonal; to him the ‘I’ was a gift, presented to him from the spiritual world. …
This was experienced in Europe, and hence the European felt this gradual ascent to the individual ‘I’ as the emerging from a kind of group-soul. The Germanic Scandinavian still felt himself attached to a group-soul, belonging to a whole community, as if he were a part in the great body of his people. …
At that time each individual still felt himself to be a member of the tribal ‘I’. He felt his individual ‘I’ being gradually born out of the tribal ‘I’, and in the God Thor he recognized the giver, the bestower of the ‘I’, the God who really presented him with the individual ‘I’.
But he felt this God to be still united with the collective spirit of the tribe, with that which dwelt in the group-soul. To this group-soul was given the name Sif. That is the name of the spouse of Thor. Sif must linguistically be connected with the word Sippe-tribal relationship, — and this connection really exists, although veiled and hidden.
Occultly, however, Sif signifies the group-soul of the individual community from which the single individual grows forth.
Sif is the astral body Steiner mentions in connection with Zarathustra, Hermes, and Christ. She is the most developed being of the old Moon, the Third Logos, where Thor was the most developed being of the old Sun, the most developed etheric being, the Second Logos.
Sif is the being who unites herself with the God of the individual ‘I’, with the giver of the individual ‘I’, with Thor.
Thor and Sif is two but also one, what the Indians designates with Shakti-Shaktiman. See Radha-Krishna. Sif is Sofia or Sophia and Thor is Anthropos and together they become Anthroposophia. Thor was the primary fighter of evil, and the Midgard Serpent was his responsibility to handle. He was the Manas bearer, he was immune to Lucifer, and it was Sif that made him immune, she is the giver of Manas. The Northman was kept connected to the spiritual world longer, not taking part in the general development of the material culture, it was not their time yet.
The individual man recognized Sif and Thor as the Beings who gave him his ‘I’. The Northman still felt thus about them, at a time when to the peoples in other parts of Europe other tasks had already been given in the educating of man up to the ‘I’.
Yahve is represented in the Bible through Moses and Zipporah corresponding to Thor and Sif.
In this picture of Michael, the Sword represent
Anthropos or Thor and the Grail Sophia or Sif.
From Egyptian Myths and Mysteries, The Christ Impulse as Conqueror of Matter, Lecture 12.
He saw in his folk-soul the re-embodiment of Isis. He saw how she had once wandered among men. Isis worked in the folk-soul. He saw in her the same influences as those that proceeded from the moon; these forces worked in the folk-soul.”
From Isis and Madonna by Rudolf Steiner.
… Therefore in the true sense of spiritual science, we do not speak only of one Mother but of the Mothers, realizing that what we have today as the physical Mother is the last development of the soul-spiritual figure out of the spiritual realm.
There are in fact images of Isis representing not one Mother but Mothers, three Mothers.
▪️In front we have a figure, Isis with the Horus child at her breast, resembling the oldest representations of the Madonna.
▪️But behind this figure in certain Egyptian representations we have another figure, an Isis, bearing on her head the two familiar cow horns and the wings of the hawk, offering the “Crux Ansata” ☥ (Ankh) to the child. We see that what is physical, human, in the foremost figure is here more spiritualized.
▪️Behind there is yet a third figure, bearing a lion’s head and representing the third stage of the human soul. This is how these three Isis figures appear, one behind the other.
Isis/Hathor as Sekhmet when acting as the eye of Ra.
It is an actual fact that our human soul bears in it three natures — a will nature, found in the inmost depths of the being, a feeling nature and a wisdom nature. These are the three soul Mothers; we meet them in the three figures of the Egyptian Isis.
The threefold Isis is also known as Hathor and her various forms.
Continuing Mission of Folk-Souls (1929): Lecture 10
There are different theories about when the Celtic language arose, some say 1200BC others believe it arose within the Bell Beaker culture from 2800BC. This is in the period Steiner calls the Descending Moses Epoch.
These texts are a good example of how Steiner work, he creates puzzle pieces, and we have to put them together. When talking about Thor and Sif in the Nordic tradition he stays within context, he doesn't muddle different vocabularies with each other. When talking about the Celts as those who are the people the gods teach the people through, Steiner don’t mention Thor or Sif.
Every single people has its particular task. There above all we find that people, that collection of peoples, that community of peoples whom we know by the name of Celts.
The Folk-spirit of the Celts — of whom from former lectures we know that later he received quite different tasks — then had the task of educating the still youthful ‘I’ of the peoples of Europe. For this it was necessary that the Celts should receive an education and instruction which was communicated directly from the higher world. Hence it is perfectly true that through their Initiates, the Druid Priests, the Celts did receive instruction from the higher worlds which they could not have acquired by their own strength, and which they then had to hand on further to the other nations.
The collective culture of Europe is a gift of the European Mysteries. The progressive Folk-souls are, as they progress, always the leaders of the collective culture of humanity. …
▪️We might therefore say, that before the actual Germanic Scandinavian evolution began, the mystery-education could only be given to European civilization by the old Celtic Mysteries. This mystery-education allowed just so much to come to the surface as was necessary to form a foundation for the whole culture of Europe.
Now out of this old culture, through intermingling with the many different races, peoples and subdivisions of peoples, the most varied Folk-souls and Folkspirits were able to fertilize themselves, and they brought the ‘I’ into ever different conditions in order to educate it, the ‘I’ which has worked its way up out of the foundations of all that lies below the ‘I’ of man. …
Morrigan, Sif or Lakshmi? Gundestrup silver cauldron (dated 150-1 BC,) Denmark.
From The Old Sagas of the Gods, March 22, 1905
There were at that time, the Initiation of the Trotten in the North, and of the Druids in the West. In primitive temples, half natural and half constructed, there was a sacred enclosure.
In this two Gods were represented as ruling the world: — Hu and Zeritwen; — Hu is Osiris and Zeritwen Isis. Man is Horus.
There were three grades of initiation, — first ? Soothsayer (?); second, Bards; third, Druids. A man who had been initiated into the three grades underwent transformation, so that through the awakening of his higher faculties he became the God Baldur.
The mystic had to say to himself: — “Thou must become the re-animated Baldur who was killed by the God Loki.”
He was then given the consecrated mead, and the consecrated ring. Mead corresponds with the Indian Soma drink. At his initiation the Northern initiate was first instructed as to the evolution of the Earth, the preceding stages of the planet.…
Hur, who ruled on Earth from the Moon, is Loki, who brought to the Earth that which ought to have gone through its stage of development on the Moon.
From The Races of Mankind and the Origins of Religion Éduard Schuré.
Ossian, the last of the great Celts, will summon Fingal and his companions in the gathering clouds. Thus at the very origin of social life, ancestor worship is established among the white race. The great ancestor becomes the god of the tribe. This was the beginning of religion.
While India and Persia developed world culture developed Europe the I, but no leading culture, so Greece was a barbarian blank slate ready to develop the next culture. While Europe developed materialism, Scandinavia lived in the periphery receiving waves from the European culture but without being enmeshed in it. Now they are ready to start something new.
From The Mission of Folk-Souls, Lecture 7
…we still have an Archangel in Europe who worked in the Germanic and above all in the Celtic peoples; in those peoples who, at the time when Christianity started, were still spread over a great part of Western Europe, as far as the present Hungary, across South Germany and the Alps.
These peoples had the Celtic Folk-spirit for their Archangel. The peoples belonging to the Celtic Spirit were also spread far up towards the north-east of Europe.
They were guided by an important Archangel who, soon after the Christian impulse had been given to humanity, had renounced becoming an Archai, a Spirit of Personality, and decided to remain at the stage of an Archangel and to be subordinate in future to the various Spirits of the Age who should arise in Europe.
Hence also the Celtic peoples as one combined people dwindled away, because their Archangel had practiced a special resignation and had undertaken a special mission. … He became the inspiring Spirit of esoteric Christianity; and in particular of those teachings and impulses which underlie esoteric Christianity; the real true esoteric Christianity comes from his inspirations. …
The peoples of Scandinavia, with their first Archangels, were at the same time given quite different tendencies, tendencies which at the present time are really only still expressed in the unique form of the Scandinavian mythology.
If we compare, in the occult sense, the Scandinavian mythology with other mythologies which have reigned upon the earth, we may know that this Scandinavian mythology represents the primal tendencies of the Archangel who was sent up here to the North, the primal tendencies which have retained their original form, such as we would have to see in a child, when particular talents, latent genius, etc., remain at the stage of childhood.
▪️In the Archangel who was sent to Scandinavia we have those tendencies which were expressed later in the unique form of the Scandinavian mythology. Hence the great significance of the Scandinavian mythology for the comprehension of the real, inner being of the Scandinavian Folk-soul.
▪️Hence also the great significance which the understanding of this mythology has for the further development of this Archangel, who certainly had within him, in a certain way, the tendency to rise to the rank of an Archai. But to that end several things are necessary. It is necessary that in quite a definite way those tendencies should develop which in certain respects have to-day withdrawn behind the dim and shadowy influence of that Spirit of the Age who had placed himself in front of the impulse of Christianity.
Although several things in the Germanic-Scandinavian mythology may appear curiously like the presentations of the Greek mythology, it must nevertheless be said that there is no other mythology on the earth which, in its remarkable construction and unique development, gives a more significant or a clearer picture of the evolution of the world than this Scandinavian mythology, so that this picture may be taken as a preparatory stage for the Anthroposophical picture of the evolution of the world.
In the Ascending Moses Epoch, 1000 to 2000 AC, are the ascended Thor, and Sif beings again leading the development in Northern Europe but now representing esoteric Christianity, and here the Scandinavian countries go through the transition to the Christian religion. Interestingly, all the Scandinavian countries have Cross flags. Tradition tells that the Danish flag fell down from heaven at the Battle of Lindanise in 1219.
From History of the Middle Ages: Lecture I: Celts, Teutons, and Slavs
The thought of freedom was evolved during the Middle Ages in spite of all the counter-currents which gave this period the name of “the dark Middle Ages.” To many to-day the Middle Ages appear as a gloomy epoch, yet it was in the Middle Ages that that was developed which later, the poets sought, namely, the consciousness of freedom, a consciousness for which the 18th century fought bitterly, and with which the struggles of the present day are concerned.
What Solovieff, Hegel, and Fichte give for our time are the same we find in the Gita of Krishna. This is the main teaching of the Kali Yuga, the sublimation of the Ascending Epoch of Moses.
Continuing Mission of Folk-Souls (1929): Lecture 10
Hegel's world of ideas is the final, the most highly sublimated expression of the Spiritual[Consciousness] Soul, and contains in pure concepts that which the Northman still saw as sensible-super-sensible, divine spiritual powers in connection with the ‘I’.
And when the ‘I’ was expressed in Fichte, it was nothing but a precipitation of what the God Thor had given to the human soul, now viewed from the Spiritual[Consciousness] Soul in what seems to be the simplest of thoughts, the thought ‘I am,’ which is the starting-point of Fichte's philosophy.
A straight line of evolution goes from the presentation of the ‘I’ by the God Thor or Donar to the old Northern peoples from the spiritual world, down to this philosophy.
This God had to prepare all this for the Spiritual[Consciousness] Soul in order that the latter might receive its fitting contents, for its task is to look out into the outer world and to work within that world.
But this philosophy does not discover merely the external, crude, materialistic experience, it discovers in the external world the contents of the Spiritual[Consciousness] Soul itself, and looks upon Nature merely as the other side of idea. Take this on-working impulse, and in it you have the mission of the Northern Germanic peoples in Central Europe. …
We have just entered the Ascending Abraham Epoch, the period of the Father and the development of the Consciousness soul.
Continuing Mission of Folk-Souls (1929): Lecture 10
Then comes the laying hold of the Spirit-Self by the Spiritual[Consciousness] Soul, so that the Spirit-Self shines into the Spiritual[Consciousness] Soul, which, as that is the task of the sixth stage of civilization, must be prepared for gradually.
That civilization, which must be pre-eminently a receptive one, for it must reverently await the penetrating of the Spirit-Self into the Spiritual[Consciousness] Soul, is being prepared by the peoples of Western Asia and the Slav peoples of Eastern Europe. …
Before Golgotha the two Pillars of the Earth was the Father and the Son, it changes after Golgotha, now the Son and the Holy Spirit are the two Pillars of the Earth. Here we have Thor and Sif again, or Krishna and Radha, but now united.
In the East we find in the first place a distinct consciousness of a world of the Cosmic Father. Everything that is creatively active in air and fire, in all the elements in and above the earth, meets us as one great, all-embracing idea, which is at the same time an all-embracing feeling, the concept of the Heavenly Father.
In somewhat the same way as we think of the Devachanic world as fertilizing our earth, so do we find this heavenly world, the world of the Father, coming towards us from the East, and it fertilizes that which is felt to be the Mother, the Spirit of the Earth.
We have no other expression and can think of no other way of picturing the whole Spirit of the Earth than in the picture of the fertilization of Mother Earth.
Two worlds, then, confront one another there, instead of single individual Divine Figures.
And what is felt to be the Blessed Child of these two worlds, stands in front of them as a third world. That is not an individual being, not a feeling in the soul, but something which is the product of the Heavenly Father and the Earth-Mother.
In this way the relation of Devachan to the Earth is felt from the spiritual world. There, that which blossoms in the material body is felt as something altogether spiritual; and that which grows and blossoms in the soul, is perceived as the world which is at the same time felt to be the Blessed Child of the Heavenly Father and the Earth-Mother.
Universal as these conceptions are we find them among the Slav peoples which have been pushed forward towards the West. In no Western European mythology do we find this conception so universal.
We find in them clearly defined Divine Figures, but not that which we present in our Anthroposophy as the different worlds; these we find more in the Heavenly Father, the Earth-Mother, and the Blessed Child of the East.
In the Blessed Child there is again a world which permeates another one. It is a world which is, however, conceived of as being individual, because it is connected with the physical sun and its light.
The Slav element also has this Being, — although in a differently developed form of conception and feeling, — which we have so often found in the Persian mythology; it has the Sun-being who so pours his blessings into the other three worlds that the destiny of man is woven into the creation, into the Earth, through the fertilization of the Earth-Mother by the Heavenly Father, and through that which the Sun-spirit weaves into both these worlds. …
More on the Heavenly Mother and Father in The Essene Gospel of Peace.
All creation starts with the one becoming two,
and ends when they become one again.
a is the androgyne, b the masculine, and c the feminine.
All three becomes one when c Sentient Soul,
b Intellectual Soul, and a Consciousness Soul
are fully developed.
The two will centers correspond to the I AM of Thor and Sif in the same body, her corresponding to the astral body and sentient soul and his to the etheric body and intellectual soul. Steiner writes about Novalis and Sophie where they become one, two wills in the same body. Novalis is the raised Adam being, the Father, and he is of course one with his raised Eve, but they couldn't be born as one, they had to be born as two, but became one on earth. For humans they will be two, but they will create a third spiritual being where they both are unified.
Solovioff carries this duality into his conception of Christ and brings emphatically into notice that there can be no meaning in it unless one accepts the facts of a divine and a human nature, both really working together, so that they do not merely form an abstract but an organic unity, that thus only can this be understood.
Solovioff recognizes that two Will-centers [Anthropos + Sophia] must be thought of in this Being.
If you take the teachings of Spiritual Science as to the true significance of the Christ-Being, which proceed from the existence of, not an imaginary, but a spiritually real Indian influence, you then have to think of Christ as having developed within His three bodies the capacities of feeling, thought and will. There you have a human feeling, thinking and willing into which the divine Feeling, Thinking and Willing has immersed itself. …
In Solovioff's State Christ is the blood which runs through all social life, and the essential point is that the State is thought of in all the concreteness of personality, so that it acts indeed as a spiritual being, but it will fulfill its mission with all the characteristic peculiarities of a personality. No other philosophy is so permeated by the Christ-idea, — the Christ-idea which shines forth to us from still greater heights in Anthroposophy, — and yet remaining only at the germinal stage. …
Thor’s I AM is ascending and Sif’s I AM is descending, and they meet in the soul.
For the origin of the masculine and feminine on earth, see: Development of the Masculine and Feminine in Lemuria.
