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.'

THE BEGGAR THE SHOPKEEPER AND HIS ANGEL

The beggar boy went to the Arab shop every day to steal food.

He was an expert. He waited patiently until the owner was busy serving and he would slip a loaf of bread or a hunk of cheese into his coat, to quieten the hunger in his belly.

He was a pitiful sight, he knew it. Sometime ago he had glimpsed his reflection in a glass and it had startled and disgusted him. An unwashed, skinny Jew with the look of a wild animal, an orphan of wars. Discarded refuse. Unwanted. Unseen. Untouchable. Unloved. Before his parents had died he had been well educated, well fed and had a home. He had believed in angels. Now he didn't believe in anything but hunger.

He stood thinking on it this day, behind the tree as was his custom, as he waited for someone to come to distract the old man. 

The boy fidgeted. His belly growled. He was annoyed at the greedy old Arab who sat each day outside his shop to read the paper as if he had nothing but time. Arabs hated Jews and so he didn't feel bad taking this man's wares. Even so every night he would feel a pang of conscience and taking a branch from the tree opposite the shop he would sweep the footpath outside it as penance. Every morning the old Arab would open his doors and look around him with a smile on his face as if he had seen heaven.

This day there was no opportunity to steal anything for when the old man was busy there were too many people outside and he was afraid that someone might see him and call the police and when it was quiet the old man sat again with his newspaper, looking over its rim as if he expected something to happen.

The boy left to look elsewhere, dejected, hungry.

In the night it was windy and he couldn't sleep from hunger. When the wind died down he went to the shop again and took a branch from the old tree and began to sweep the leaves from the steps when he saw a loaf of bread there, sitting on a napkin. Too hungry to care why it was there, he took it, but before he could tear it in half he saw that something was written on the napkin.

“I waited all day for you. Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?'

The boy was filled with panic. He thought he could see the old man's shadow in the window of his shop waiting to snatch him and to take him to the police and so he ran away.

Later that day he returned. He wanted to confess and to ask the old Arab for his forgiveness but his shop was closed. It was closed the next day and the day after that. On the third day the boy asked the lady who lived next door what had happened to the old man.

'Why do you care? He died on that windy night from cold sitting by the window waiting for that angel of his.'

'Angel?' The boy was amazed.

'Yes he said that an angel from Jehova came to him every day to take bread from him and every night he returned to sweep his steps. Imagine that! An angel of Jehova eating bread and sweeping the steps of an Arab shopkeeper!'

Choking back tears the boy walked away, thinking that there must be an angel in every one for that old man had been his angel! He had always known of his stealing and had done nothing! And, the boy thought, if there was an angel in him too, then he had better make something of his life, that way the old man's death would not be in vain!

Years later he was a man valued in his community as honest hardworking and kind. He always left a loaf out on the steps of his house. When they asked him why he said -

'You never know what angels are about..'