HOW THE SPIRIT OF GOETHE ENTERED A CONVERSATION ABOUT OPPOSITES AND GAVE BIRTH TO INSPIRATION.

The artist stands by his painting pondering it when a woman comes to stand beside him.

'I never understand your paintings. To me the colours and forms do not seem aesthetically pleasing.'

The artist considers this and says, 'Perhaps it is because what you find aesthetically pleasing is merely what corresponds to the world of nature and I try to convey not nature itself but my soul's experience of nature.'

'Is that why you paint roses green?'

'When I see a red rose, and I look within my soul, its imprint is green and this to me is the essential nature of the rose - its counterpart, or hidden spirit. This one might say is the truth of the rose, what is hidden from physical eyes - the green seen only by the eyes of my soul! For me this truth is more beautiful than the red you see with outer eyes, and which is only it's outer material counterpart.'

The woman looks at the painting and closes her eyes. She opens them excitedly. 'I see what you mean! But for me it is a different experience.'

'How so?'

'Well, the moment you painted that rose green on the canvas, it acquired a material substance which is seen by me as green with my eyes. Your soul's spiritual experience when made physical is a physical experience for me until I look inside myself and find the red rose again!'

'I hadn't thought of that, but I suppose you are right! When you look at the green rose, inside you, you now have a red counterpart which corresponds to what I have made physically perceptive! How odd!'

'You have added something to creation, turned spirit into matter through your soul.'

'And you have turned the matter I have created into spirit in yours! The cycle returns, the rose is red but this time it is red in your soul!'

'I have learnt something now...!' says the woman, 'I have learnt that I must pay more attention to everything I see and note its counterpart for its truth!'

'And I have learnt that whatever I create, no matter what it is will always bring the spirit down into matter and by doing so take the spirit truth out of it!' he says dejectedly.

'Unless you show both!' she offers.

'How do you mean?' the artist asks, almost breathless.

'When you look at a yellow bale of hay, do you not notice how its shadow is always purple?'

'Yes! Indeed! You mean one can show both counterparts together and in this way the experience in the soul of the viewer will always be complete, no matter whether they are seeing it physically or spiritually?'

'When I look at your green rose now,' the woman says to him, 'I see the red hovering all around it...is this not the spiritual shadow? I see the activity of both physical and spiritual!'

The painter smiles widely, so widely it fills the world with warmth.

The woman has never seen this young man, who looks so old in his eyes and so tormented, smile this way before, and she walks away from him smiling too because the world has changed for her now. The world will never be the same and her soul will also never be the same. For she has realised what it means to free the soul so that it can find its wings!

The artist now contemplates his painting in a new light. He realises that in expressing the spirit of the red which is green, he has created a physical green, whose spirit is red!

'So that is what old man Goethe was trying to say!' he says to himself, almost with a chuckle. 'I have been trying to understand it all my life and now I do! If I only show one side of existence, be it spiritual or physical, it will never speak the whole truth and it will, therefore, never be beautiful! I must show both and not merely that! I must show how they interact - how they converse. To perceive this one needs a higher faculty than the faculty of imagination, which knows only the image of the opposite. One must be able to observe the conversation of opposites that goes beyond words, a form of seeing which is a hearing! A hearing that does not need ears to perceive it - and yet, and yet! Which has been inspired by words, just as red in the eyes, inspires green in the soul, and green, red!

'My conversation with that woman has reconciled the opposites in my soul and I have come to something higher! This must be what happens when the gods converse with their creations, they learn something and rise higher! The creator learns from His creation and His creation becomes creative, in turn a creator who again learns from His creation! And the cycle continues...

'But how to express this mystery without using words! Using only colours, shadows, light and lines? How to show the weaving movement of inner and outer, darkness and light, image and after image, colour and counterpart, spirit and matter, matter and soul, soul and spirit? After all, to show what inspiration is, I must first be inspired by God! I must enter into His soul, just as the red rose has entered into mine!'

Thinking such deep thoughts Van Gogh leaves his paintings behind and with a frown and fitful purpose goes out into the starlit night, in search of inspiration...

...And he finds it by listening with his eyes.

Love unites with all it sees.
And by its very nature
It reveals
The Truth
That those who do not love
Do not see.

So it is that those who love
Love because they see the Truth.
And because they see the truth,
They are be-loved
By Christ,
Who is love and truth combined.

The Riddle.

'What is a light that is more radiant than the sun?' The youth asks the dragon. 


The dragon being clever answers before he thinks. 'A light born from out of the darkness of the human soul!'

But upon saying this the dragon is immediately enlightened!

'So, is this the secret of the demons then?' I ask the dragon. 'That consciousness turns darkness to light?'

The dragon now answers readily. 'Yes...when the light of the sun, the Word, entered into the darkness of the earth, the sun weakened but a seed was laid in the earth for a new sun. This new sun is the Light born from darkness. This is Christ Himself. This the demons would keep from the consciousness of men and so from the understanding of the gods: The way in which evil can be used against itself so that it can be transformed into goodness, through consciousness.


The human being,
Standing between heaven and earth,
Carries the light of the spirit
Into the darkness of matter
Where even angels
Fear to tread.

Two Reasons why I wrote The Sixth Key and Fifth Gospel - A Novel.

There were two reasons why I wrote The Sixth key and Fifth Gospel - A Novel and I would like to share them with you.

In actual fact, Fifth Gospel - A Novel was written first though it came out last. I had a desire to bring it out this year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Fifth Gospel Lectures by R. Steiner but I found incredible resistance to publishing it through 'regular' publishers. Random House didn't want it and my agent sent it around to other publishers who didn't want it either. I realised that I had to write The Sixth Key first, as I was committed to write a book for Random. On researching it, I understood the wisdom of the spiritual world - according to Emil Bock the Apocalypse had to come before the Eternal Gospel because it was a foundation for it, because the eternal Gospel given by an angel at a time of great tribulation was found in the Apocalypse. Yes these were the original names of the two books - Apocalypse and Eternal Gospel.

The Sixth Key may seem like an adventure story, but I followed Rudolf Steiner's indications regarding the impulses that led to the First World War very closely. I had a sense that this too was going to see it's 100 year reflection. In the Sixth key I wove as much information as possible on the work of the secret brotherhoods, keeping the book light and entertaining but informative, so that, when it came to it, a feeling for the work of the brotherhoods would come when we were all faced with their work again in the world. (Having taken very much to heart what Rudolf Steiner said when he made the comment that if Schiller had finished his play Dimitri then Kaspar Hauser would not have been killed because a precedent would have lived in the heart of too many people and they would have recognised the work of the brotherhoods.)

The Sixth Key was a warning to the world based entirely on The Karma of Untruthfulness.

Only after The Sixth Key came out could I then bring out Fifth Gospel - A Novel, late last year, and as you know I published it myself.

It is not enough to banish evil through recognising it, but we also have to heal. The Fifth Gospel Lectures were given to the world by Rudolf Steiner a little prematurely because according to Peter Selg Rudolf Steiner would have liked to have given them at the Goetheanum, where the right atmosphere would allow them to enter into the hearts of the listeners. The impulse however to give them was too strong as the war was on its way. Rudolf Steiner gave those lectures to small groups hoping for their understanding. According to Peter Selg, for the first time in all his lecturing life, he read from notes, because he had intended to write a book, he wanted it to be like a story. It was not received with the right soul mood and so he stopped giving the lectures and finally stopped talking about the Fifth Gospel altogether.

The Fifth Gospel cost him the Goetheanum and his life. It was the last straw, the brotherhoods could not tolerate the mention of karma and the unveiling of their work as well as the truth about Christ Jesus to come out!

Why am I telling you this? What are my two reasons for writing The Sixth key and the Fifth Gospel? Am I just blowing my own trumpet?

No.

We are living in Apocalyptic times - Fifth Gospel was given to the world 100 years ago! We can measure where we are in the Book of Revelations by this very fact! The two gifts The Karma of Untruthfulness and the Fifth Gospel lectures, given to us by Rudolf Steiner are incredibly significant right now and I wanted to underline them as they can help us to not only understand what is going on around us but also, to find a way to heal the world.

For it is not enough to banish the devils from the physical body through wakefulness, if we want to bring about healing, we have to then work on the soul, which, free of the devils can now begin to balance itself. What is the balance that brings healing?

This is Christ.

So that is what I, in my own imperfect way have consciously tried to achieve for those who are not Anthroposophists with those two books. To bring them the work of Rudolf Steiner through the artistic element that they might develop concepts other than those they see on TV every day.

Those of us who have Rudolf Steiner's lectures can and should read them at this time, just to reacquaint ourselves with his indications for we need both consciousness of evil and a living experience of Christ if we are to really navigate the fetid sea of lies and propaganda we are experiencing. Those who cannot come to his lectures will hopefully find their way to them through the work we do on their behalf in the world.

The Hibernian Initiate

'Aye!' said, the Hibernian initiate to the postulant, 'This is what you must undergo:'

When you enter into your inner coldness
You will see a vision of Old Moon
And you will understand:
In the mineral substance of your bones
There is Wisdom.

When you free this numbness to the outer warmth
You will see a vision of old Sun
And you will understand:
In the-streaming light that now enters your organs
There is Goodness.

When you experience this sense warmth
You will see Old Saturn
And you will understand:
In warmth perception
There is evidence of Life.

When you learn to out-stream this warmth
You will see a vision of new Jupiter
And you will understand:
Human warmth on Jupiter will issue forth
As a love for the spirit.

Then when you can overcome your lower ego
You will see future Venus
And your will understand:
Only by loving the higher spirit can my warmth begin to shine
As a source of spirit light.

When this spirit light enters your heart again
You will see a future Vulcan.
And you will understand:
The spirit light of thought in you resounds as Word,
To become world comprehending.

Aye! You will work to know Christ, my son,
Before Christ comes,
To unite the Cosmic Word
With the human soul.
And when he comes, you will need no outer evidence,
For you will know: the human word in you
Does recognise the Christ, the Word of Worlds!

THE BLIND-FOLDED DRIVER

What is the cause of the epidemic of fear and anxiety we see in the world today? We live as if a calamity were just around the corner, that every step we take might be our last. Why is this so? Has the world become more dangerous than ever before? Is time speeding up out of our control? Not essentially. It is because we are moving closer to the spirit, we are speeding up, more than ever before but we are blind to it.

Imagine a blind-folded man riding a motorbike on auto pilot.

He can't balance himself well nor can he control his forward movement because he can't see where he is going. This causes a particular illusion to arise in him the faster the bike goes - he doesn't so much believe that he is moving forward but that the air is rushing toward him at ever greater speeds and that it is threatening to engulf him. This causes a dreadful fear and anxiety for what will happen, for what he will lose, for the calamities and accidents and wars, famines and injustices that are coming towards him that he can't control.

But the blind folded man is the point of resistance for that air. He can't see what is behind or what is ahead but he feels he is present because of this resistance he gives to this air. This resistance is important for living in the world. That is how the man knows he is alive, present on that bike despite the fact that he can't see himself. But he can use this resistance to balance himself and to find his hands, which are the will that can take away the blind fold so he can see where he is going.

In ordinary perceptions and the thinking that arises from them there is no free will. We are taken for a ride out of our control and we feel we are headed for doom because our thinking, we suspect, is really a kind of death. But if we find the will to free ourselves of the blindfold of ordinary thinking and perception we see where we are going, we see what is behind, ahead and all around and because of this orientation we realise that our forward movement is the reason the air feels like it is rushing towards us. We realise that the air is really the spirit, that the driver, our souls, is seeking! We see that the bike is the physical instrument of this quest. We are moving forward seeking the spirit blindly!

We must become the drivers of our own destiny if we are to dispel fear and anxiety and we can only do this by freeing our will. When we can see what is behind us, the causes of our feelings, impulses and thoughts that live in our will and we unite this freely with the spirit that is ahead of us, then we are truly in control and free - we can enjoy the ride!

So you see...higher consciousness does not arise without free will. We need to find the hands of the heart to release the head from its blindness or we will grow more and more anxious and full of fear. Those who can see the truth do not fear.

THE GAME (my version of Herman Hesse's Glass Bead Game)

'Magister Ludi what is the goal of the Glass Bead Game?' said the postulant.

'To create a new science and art.'

'What are the rules?'

'There is to be no competition with others, all desire for reaching the goal will prevent you from doing so, and the end becomes the beginning.'

'What are the steps?

'The first step:

Remember that science only tells you about everything you see with your senses, these are sensations, feelings. It tells you only about what has 'become'. But this, you see, is only half of 'being'.

You must learn to will your thoughts out of you to meet what is 'becoming' without feelings. That is how you find the spirit. Then you shall know the counterpoint of everything thing - this is a new science.

The Second step:

Observe how the counterpoint makes an impression in you. Allow yourself to be moulded by the spirit in the world. This is the very essence of finding the Art in the game and the game is nothing without it. As long as you try to impress your self onto the spirit of things, you are wounding the spirit - or rather removing it from the things themselves so that they lose their objective truth!

Allow what has entered you to exist and die away without making any image of it. It is only from the silence that the new art is born.

The Third step:

Allow the warmth to fire your limbs to creative deeds - when you have reached this stage in the game you have brought science and art together.

'What is the glass bead?'

'You are the glass bead.'

'What do you mean?'

'A glass bead is completely individual and beautiful alone, but it can only contribute to the beauty of the game when it joins with other beads. The secret is this: it joins the other beads not out of desire, not out of competitiveness, but to create new games. Even so, it never loses its individual beauty and shape. What it becomes is what it was always intended to be. That is how the end becomes the beginning.'