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Thoughts, September 16th 2001

In the autumn fruit trees stand ripe for harvest. The tree offers, sacrifices its own living substance to the earth in its fruit. It makes this sacrifice so that new life, new trees, more fruit can grow and develop. When cared for by humans, the fruit is harvested so that the tree’s abundant life can feed others.

This week we watched in horror as malignant forces harvested human lives. We struggle to make sense of such madness, for we know that human lives are not fruit for the taking.

In our proper horror, it is easy to overlook an important more hidden aspect: that, contrary to appearances from this side of the threshold, human life does not end in death.

Over and against the negative images we have seen, can be set another, more important image:

As bodies fall to earth, grand and gentle beings of light receive and carry the further life of every one of those souls. They are presented to Christ. He gathers them up and takes them home.

Now they are beginning to awaken to the real reasons why their lives on earth were harvested, how the event of their death fits into the pattern of their past and present life, how it fits into our lives, and how it will fit into the future life of the earth.

No one’s real life has been lost. The kernel, the seed, the best of each of those individuals has been gathered up by the good beings in the universe. This best will be sown again, will grow and blossom and nourish.

Their lives were sacrificed, offered; some unconsciously, others, like the rescue workers, with more conscious intent. But their offer only moves toward meaninglessness if we refuse to eat of the fruit they are holding out to us: that human life is actually unceasing; that death has another side-it is a birth into another realm. Death is illuminated by Christ. Death is mad to serve the formation of new life, the sprouting of new trees from the fruit of the old.

In the coming days and months, those us us here on earth can watch and care for that new life. The children who will be born in the near future will have experienced what lives in the souls now released by these events. As approaching souls and newly released souls mingle near the earth, those yet to be born will be inspired to take up the threads, the ideals, the guiding impulses of those whose lives were offered. These approaching souls, as well as those who have just crossed, will be filled with a drive toward true peace, true love, and true human freedom. Even now, we ourselves can feel the inspiring forces of those released.

Today, September 16, 79 years ago, the first Act of Consecration of Man was born. It crossed the threshold into the world of earth. It is a ritual which hallows death. It is a re-enactment of Christ’s sacrificing of himself. And it is the place where we are encouraged to practice dying by consciously offering the best fruits of our souls, here and now, from this side of the threshold. We practice giving back to God and his angels our best thoughts, our hearts’ love, our warmest devotion. We offer these gifts of ourselves so that they can cross the threshold into Christ’s arms, so that he can gather them up and transform them into the nourishment for the angels. With this nourishment the angels can in turn strengthen all of us human beings, on both sides of the threshold, for the times to come.

The message from the world of the angels is always, first and foremost: Do not be afraid. Have no fear.

We may pray:

O Christ, you know
The souls and spirits
Whose deeds have woven
This country’s destiny.

May we who today
Are bearers of this destiny
Find the strength and the light
Of your servant Michael.

And our hearts be warmed
By your blessing, O Christ,
That our deeds may serve
Your work of world healing.

Christ answers: I am with you all days…

September 14, 2011/0 Comments/by Rev. Cynthia Hindes

Essays and Articles

Looking Westward

As my days in Toronto become numbered, I find that leaving is not easy, but I feel it is the right step to make. Last year during the retrospection of my life as a priest during the 25th anniversary celebration, I had the grace of what Rudolf Steiner described as “rising above oneself in retrospection.” I could look back and take hold of original impulses in a new way, to be able to go forward into a new phase of development. And it became clear that I had to let go of the life and web of connections that has grown up here like a tended garden, and be willing “to die and become.” This is a process difficult both for me and for the community.

This is an ash process, whereby offering becomes a way for enrichment.

The good that we have worked together will fall like ash fertilising a field to enrich the foundation for new growth, for receiving new impulses. It is not that the “old” is destroyed, and the ever sought-after new becomes sovereign like a novelty fashion. It is that the old becomes fixed in its forms, like in the forming of a salt, where the crystal captures a particular stage. And in order for new life to spring up, a dissolving or yielding or metamorphosing must take place.

Of these possibilities, the choice has been made for me to take up work in Vancouver, for someone new to come to Toronto. Although everyone recognises that this is an opportunity for renewal, it is not without effort. Some may even feel that in my leaving, an unspoken agreement is being unacknowledged. But the agreement of a priest must be a commitment to something more far-reaching than to a particular community: it is a commitment to the body of Christ in Christian Communities. And in that we are all ultimately affected by the health of the whole. We cannot rest in our achievements, the comfort of the known and loved, once our consciousness expands beyond our current scope.

I am going to a congregation that has existed many decades, founded by Verner Hegg, and where Werner Grimm has worked for a long time, and also Michael Kientzler. There is a church building there in Burnaby, similar to the church on Avenue Road. Many people debate whether or not the church should be located there near the downtown, or in North Vancouver, where most of the people live.

Vancouver itself looks out towards Vancouver Island, the Pacific, the Aleutian Islands, and the International Dateline where today becomes tomorrow… It is situated on the Pacific rim, which encircles an ocean floor unlike the other oceans of the earth. Under the other great oceans, a structure is evident in the ocean floor that expresses a deep and vital process of circulation. A ridge, like a backbone, directs the flow of the currents of water. The metabolism that takes place at the bottom of the Atlantic, for example, helps to keep the tectonic plates which carry the continents encircling the Atlantic healthy. But the Pacific ocean floor does not have this underlying structure. It is rough and torn, still scarred by the ancient wrenching free of matter that left the earth and eons ago formed the moon.

September 14, 2011/0 Comments/by CCNA

Essays and Articles

The Revelation to John: Structure¹

Introduction
1:1-8
1. 1:1-3 John’s Preface and the 1st Beatitude (reading and hearing this book
2. 1:4-8 John greets the Seven Churches in Asia – Voice of the Lord God
Opening Vision
1:9-3:22
1. 1:9-20 I John (in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day) – Vision of One Like a Son of Man
2. 2:1-3:22 The Seven Letters, to Ephesus – Smyrna – Pergamum – Thyatira – Sardis – Philadelphia – Laodicea
1st Throne Vision
4:1-7:8
1. ²4:1-11 The One Sitting on the Throne and the 24 Elders
2. 5:1-14 The Lamb
3. 6:1-8 The first four Seals: the Four Horsemen
4. 6:9-11 The fifth Seal: the souls of Martyrs
5. 6:12-17 The sixth seal: signs of heaven, doom on earth
6. 7:1-8 Heavenly Interlude on earth: sealing of the 144,000 Servants of the Lord
2nd Throne Vision
7:9-11:14
1. 7:9-12 Song of Those who Came Through; the Angels’ Song of Praise
2. 7:131-17 Those in White Robes, explanation by one of the Elders
3. 8:1 Opening the seventh Seal – Silence in heaven
4. 8:2-5 The angel with the golden censer, the prayers of the saints
5. 8:6-12 The first four Trumpets
6. 8:13 Heavenly Interlude : the Eagle in Midheaven
7. 9:1-12 The fifth Trumpet, being the first Woe
8. 9:13-21 The sixth Trumpet, being the second Woe
9. 10:1-11 Heavenly Interlude: the Strong Angel with the Book for the Seer (The seven Thunders)
10. 11:1-14 The two Witnesses. Announcing the third Woe
3rd Throne Vision
11:15-13:18
[The seven visions of the Dragon]
1. 11:15-19 The seventh Trumpet: Hymn in heaven, the Elders giving thanks
2. 12:1-6 First vision of the Dragon: The Cosmic Woman and the Birth of her Son
3. 12:7-9 2nd Vision: Michael battling the Dragon
4. 12:10-12 3rd Vision: Hymn of Victory in heaven
5. 12:13-18 4th Vision: The Dragon battling on earth
6. 13:1-10 5th Vision: The first Beast
7. 13:1-14 6th Vision: The second Beast
8. 13:15-18 7th Vision: The Mark of the Beast – the Number 666
4th Throne Vision
14:1-20
[The seven visions of the Son of Man]
1. 14:1-5 The Lamb on Mount Zion with the 144.000
2. 14:6-7 The first Angel: the Eternal Gospel
3. 14:8 The second Angel, announcing Judgment on Babylon
4. 14:9-12 The third Angel, announcing Judgment on those who follow the Beast
5. 14:13 2nd Beatitude (Those who die in the Lord)
6. 14:14-16 The Son of Man reaping the earth with his sharp sickle
7. 14:17-20 The Angel with the Sickle and the Angel with Power over Fire
5th Throne Vision
15:1-16:16
[The seven angels with their bowls]
1. 15:1-5 The Sea of Glass and the Song of Praise of those Who Conquered
2. 15:6-8 The seven angels receive the seven golden Bowls
3. 16:1-11 The first five Bowls of Wrath poured out
4. 16:12-14 The sixth Bowl of Wrath poured out
5. 16:15 3rd Beatitude (Warning to be awake and to keep one’s garments)
6. 16:16 Assemblage at Armageddon
Interlude
16:17-18:24
[The seventh Bowl and the seven visions of doom]
1. 16:17-21 The seventh Bowl of Wrath poured out
2. 17:1-6 The World Harlot of Power
3. 17:7-18 The Angel interpreting her Appearance
4. 18:1-3 Woe on Babylon
5. 18:4-8 Another Angel warning the Believers
6. 18:9-20 Lament of Kings, Merchants and Seafarers
7. 18:21-24 The Angel with the Millstone, symbol of destruction
6th Throne Vision
19:1-20:15
[Seven Stages of Trial by Triumph and Judgement]
1. 19:1-10 “Hallelujah” after Babylon’s Fall – 4th Beatitude (Those called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
2. 19:11-16 The White Horseman triumphant
3. 19:17-21 Triumph over the Beast and its Vassals
4. 20:1-3 The Dragon chained
5. 20:4-6 The Thousand Years – 5th Beatitude (The First Resurrection)
6. 20:7-10 Satan’s Last Struggle and his Defeat
7. 20:11-15 The Last Judgment
Final Vision
21:1-22:7
[New Jerusalem]
1. 21:1-4 A New Heaven and New Earth
2. 21:5-8 God’s Promise
3. 21:9-17 The Heavenly City, Lay-out and Measurements
4. 21:18-21 The City’s Fundament, the twelve jewels and twelve gates
5. 21:22-27 The Residents of the City
6. 22:1-5 The River of the Water of Life and the Tree of Life
7. 22:6-7 Christ’s Coming – 6th Beatitude (To keep the words of this book)
Conclusion
22:8-21
1. 22:8-9 I John (affirming) – the Angel
2. 22:10-12 Voice of the Lord … “I am coming soon” – “Recompense”
3. 22:13 Voice of the Lord God
4. 22:14-15 7th Beatitude (Those with washed robes – Tree of Life and City)
5. 22:16-17 I Jesus – Voice of the Lord : “I have sent” – “Come”
6. 22:18-19 The Seer on the words of this prophecy
7. 22:20-21 Voice of the Lord : “Surely I am coming soon” – Prayer and Blessing

Here following Christoph Rau, in his article on the Structure of the Revelation to John, in Ich sah den Himmel aufgetan, pp 37-52 (ed. Johannes Lauten), Urachhaus, Stuttgart 2006.
“After this” which means “After these things”, indicates a beginning after a longer interval in time. See for instance 4:1, 7:1, 7:9, 15:5, 18:1 and 19:1.

Literature
In Alfred Heidenreich, The Book of Revelation (Floris Books, Edinburgh, 1977) there has been posthumously published a series of lectures held by him in 1968, the year before his death in 1969, on the invitation of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain. A translation of The Revelation to John by Heidenreich has been added. Rudolf Frieling, in the last chapter of his Christianity and Reincarnation (Floris Books, Edinburgh 1977, pp 90-117) describes “Human Evolution in the Apocalypse of John”, with the intention to see what it has to say about mankind’s Christian progress.

September 13, 2011/0 Comments/by CCNA