The Mystery of the Culmination Event,
and the True Nature of the “Platonists … the following document was shared with a half dozen leading American anthroposophists, with the request it be shared everywhere Steiner is Celebrated.
by Joel A. Wendt
preface
Some times I describe my cultural influences this way: “white privileged, Christian, son of Montana*, American citizen, shaman, and professional heretic.” *The culture of place of birth … for example, I was taught to work hard, play by the rules, mind your own business, and be good neighbor.
I was also taught is that the way to know whether a politician is lying, is that his mouth is open and he is speaking. Additionally, there are lies, then there are damn lies, and worst of all: “statistics”.
The fundamental influence is the culture of the Cowboy, as an archetype of a hero’s journey. “Learning to see the American Soul” “http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/learning.html
That essay, and a review of my book “American Anthroposophy” by William Bento, as published in the Newsletter:
http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/JWendt-review-article.pdf
Introduction
While I was at this “Culmination Event”, instead of me telling that tale, let us begin with a review of some of Steiner’s thoughts on this subject. First, two anthroposophical writers have a say:
[Stephen Usher – an interpretation]
“Further, he [Steiner] states that a great Culmination of the Anthroposophical Movement should occur at the end of the Century, and upon this depended the fate of civilization. If the Culmination actually occurred, civilization would receive a new impulse that would lift it to a higher stage, but if it failed then a terrible and inevitable decay would result. The key participants in the Culmination drama are the Aristotelians and the Platonists. The former include Rudolf Steiner and most of the souls who established Anthroposophy at the beginning of the Century. The latter included the great masters of the School of Chartres in France who typically incarnate out of sync with the Aristotelians but who would incarnate in sync with them to achieve the Culmination. “
[Jostein Saether – a more literal translation]
“Those who had come up to the spiritual world under the leadership of Alanus ab Insulis said to the descending Aristotelians: It is not our time to be present on earth now. We must first work out of the spiritual world. We cannot at all descend in some embodiments of the earth [in the nearest time]. You now have the task of coaching the intellect in the incoming consciousness soul age. The further development continued so by both those who were the leaders of the Chartres School and those who had senior positions in the Dominican Order were the head of those in the powerful transcendental solemn assembly who in the first half of the 19th century were preparing the later anthroposophical stream. First, they had to descend again, who more or less had worked as Aristotelians, because under the influence of intellectualism time was not yet ripe to deepen the spirituality of the first. But there existed an inviolable agreement. And from this it must from what is anthroposophical movement emerge something that must find its completion before the end of the current century. While there hovers a fate over the Anthroposophical Society that many of those who today are members of it must come down to earth before the end of the 20th century, but when united with those who also were either leaders of the Chartres School or students in it. So that before the end of the 20th century the Platonists of Chartres must interact here on earth with the recent Aristotelians, if civilization shall not get into a complete maturity. […] That this occurs, people in the 1900s must not forfeit! But since everything depends on the free will today, then this that it happens – namely, whether the groups which are allied with each other may go down again to do spiritualisation of culture in the 20th century – is additionally also depending on if the Anthroposophical Society understands nurturing anthroposophy devotedly in the right way.”
to repeat the core mystery challenge:
“If the Culmination actually occurred, civilization would receive a new impulse that would lift it to a higher stage, …” [Usher]
“So that before the end of the 20th century the Platonists of Chartres must interact here on earth with the recent Aristotelians, if civilization shall not get into a complete maturity.” [Saether]
Having been at the Culmination Event, and being a so-called Platonist, just means that I am an initiate in the Christian Mysteries. (http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/threshold).
And, like Socrates and Plato, who were initiates in Feminine Mysteries, I am also a devotee of the Holy Mother – Earth Mother. https://thecollectiveimagination.com/details-on-the-mysteries-of-the-mother/
The Event itself took place on an Internet discussion group named the Ark (previously Anthroposophia, and before that Anthroposophy), from 1997 to 2003. None of us knew of this Culmination idea, and while Steiner was present, he (Harvey Bornfield) did not know that prior incarnation. Here is a link to a collection of Harvey’s emails: http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/HarveyBornfield.html
CONTEXT:
Chaos, Metamorphosis, and Martha and Mary Archetypes
In Awakening to Community (also in lecture 6) Steiner remarked about a conflict then living in the Society between oppositely disposed groups (those who had duties to continue the past, and those who felt no relationship to such an impulse). Steiner then stated that it might be better if the Society divided itself into two organizations, and that these organizations would then see themselves as sister-souls, taking different paths toward reaching what was essentially the same ideal goal. A recent conversation with a friend gave rise in me the following archetypal imagery in connection with the above distinction between what I am calling the traditionalists and spirit recollection, and the progressives and spirit vision, yet which also seems related to what Steiner described in Awakening to Community as the sister-souls.
No doubt members and friends of the Anthroposophical Society in America can be some individualized combination of the two basic impulses.
Martha, through honoring tradition, takes care of the household and it is fundamentally a contemplative gesture. Mary seeks freedom and evolution of the spirit, a more active gesture. See my American Anthroposophy, in the section: “The Natural Transformation of the Anthroposophical Society in America” for more details. http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/AmericanAnthroposophy.html
The following is an example of my knowledge of the Divine Feminine Mysteries … an additional perspective to the Romanticized Sophia living in the thinking of the Aristotelians:
A Grace given by me to my family Thanksgiving 2023:
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“Holy Mother – Earth Mother, Mistress of the true Dark from which the Life and Light are themselves born. The ancient Greeks knew You as the Goddess Natura.
Thank you for the bounty at our table. In your role, as Divine Providence, we ourselves have been woven into family, and for these gifts we are also grateful.
Your graces include being the Rider of the Four Horseman, and whether it is plague, or conquest, or famine and death, we know You will catch us at the Gate of Death, just as is depicted in Michelangelo’s Pieta.
Climate Change is You warning us, yet being lost in matter we do not listen. The Covid Lock down was You giving us a time out for reflection.
That Plague itself is an aspect of a Rite of Initiation for all of humanity. Facing Death we grow deeper.
We are the prodigal sons and daughters, needing the Mystery once more of the wild places, the Underworld, the Lost Cities, or Faerie and the Fae.
To begin, all we need do, is go out of doors, and realize that behind all the world of skys and seas and forests and farms, there You are, Awake, Sentient, self-aware, and waiting.
Again, for this bounty we thank You, She who has world in His Hands, as captured so deeply in Raphael’s Madonna and Child.
Amen …
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To meet this Pagan Anthroposophy, so as to unite that with Spiritual Science, there is what is yet unknown to the Steiner friends that might help with their own further work. I camp yet outside your castle, a guardian wizard, frequently intoxicated … Again, … if we do not take up this task, the future of civilization is a risk. Steiner Said So.
ESOTERIC OBSERVATIONS OF THE SOCIETY:
I met Steiner though his books in 1978. This was after spending the previous five years as a student of the ancient Egyptian Hermetic Science (Magic), given modern form to us by Franz Bardon.
The underlying basis of this Science is the doctrine of the Four Elements: Akasha (emanation) gives us Fire as the symbol for Will (Saturn), Air as the symbol for Intellect (Sun), Water the symbol for Feeling (Moon), which three are woven into Earth as the symbol for Consciousness (Earth).
The following is from Steiner:
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA237/English/RSP1977/19240713p01.html
“Then above all there appeared to them as a living Being, whom they addressed as they would address a human being — only it was a being of a higher kind, — the Goddess Natura. She was the Goddess whom they saw before them in her full radiance, in full reality of soul. They did not speak of abstract laws of Nature, they spoke of the creative power of the Goddess Natura, working creatively in all external Nature.
She was the metamorphosis of Proserpine of antiquity. She was the ever-creating Goddess with whom he who would seek for knowledge must in a certain way unite himself. She appeared to him — appeared to him from every mineral, from every plant, from every creeping beast, from the clouds, the mountains, the river-springs. Of this Goddess who alternately in winter and in summer creates above the earth and beneath, — of this Goddess they felt: She is the hand-maid of that Divinity of whom the Gospels tell. She it is who fulfils the divine behests.
And when the seeker after knowledge had been sufficiently instructed by the Goddess about the mineral and plant and animal natures, when he was introduced into the living forces, then he learned to know from her the nature of the four Elements: — Earth, Water, Air and Fire. He learned to know the waving and weaving within the mineral and animal and plant kingdoms of the four Elements which pour themselves in all reality throughout the world: — Earth, Water, Fire, Air. He felt himself with his etheric body interwoven with the life of the Earth in its gravity, Water in its life-giving power, Air in its power to awaken sentient consciousness, Fire in its power to kindle the flame of the I. In all this he felt his human being interwoven, and he felt: This was the gift of instruction from the Goddess Natura — the successor, the metamorphosis of Proserpine. The teachers saw to it that their disciples should gain a feeling, an idea of this living intercourse with Nature — Nature filled with divine forces, filled with divine substance. They saw to it that their pupils should penetrate to the living and weaving of the Elements.”
I am a Goethean scientist of human social and political life: http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/artofgod.html
The following is a critique of the A. Society, especially in America, … a friendly report card, if you will. Just ask your self what the Steiner Spirit might have to say to us. I do not think he will pat any of us on the back, the incarnation of the Michaelic Wisdom is ongoing.
Nobody is perfect, not even Steiner.
“There is gaping hole in the heart of the Anthroposophical Society.
This is hole comes from almost no one becoming acquainted with their OWN mind following Steiner’s teachings on “Cognition” in GA-2 and GA-4. Owen Barfield called GA-2, “A Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe’s World Conception”, “The least read most important work Steiner ever wrote.”
As a kind of subtitle, Steiner writes in GA-4, “The Philosophy of Freedom”, “some results of introspection following the methods of natural science”. A further crucial remark, at the end of the original preface to this book, he writes: “One must be able to confront an idea and experience it, otherwise one will fall into its bondage”.
One of the reasons I decry the “Steiner-sez” addiction in the Society is that if those above books had been studied, we would know that to treat those “indications” as knowledge is to fail to understand Steiner’s meditations on the epistemology riddle at the core.
He does speak (see the introductions to both Theosophy and Occult Science) of “understanding”, a word he uses several time, while at the same time not using the word knowledge.
He has indicated that his work was similar to the work of natural scientists, which idea basically was meant to point out that the natural scientist cannot give us his “experience”, but only an “understanding” of his research.
In the above two remarkable books, GA-2 works with the observation of “experience” and “thought”, which later in GA-4 appear as percept and concept. The unity of experience and thought, and percept and concept are what he means by “knowledge”.
This means that when we quote him as an authority, we ourselves lack the percept, therefore cannot know, but we can understand. At the same time, these books create an answer to the Dualism in thought driving this scientific age, with a beautiful Monism.
The leaders in the society need to go back to the basics, where he began, if we wish to revitalize the Society for the future. Put aside the lectures, and do some inner work on discovery the OWN mind in action.”
That said, let us recall Martha and Mary …Each individual student of Steiner’s has to find their own balance between … from above “Martha, through honoring tradition, takes care of the household and it is fundamentally a contemplative gesture. Mary seeks freedom and evolution of the spirit, a more active gesture.”
Personal conversations, with the Mother, have made clear this almost silly truth: We are all the right people, in the right place, at the right time. And, we are also the wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Otherwise known as the school of Hard Knocks and Shared Pain.
It is Her/my wish that leaders in the Society take up this book (where RS began): “A Theory if Knowledge Implicit in Goethe’s World Conception”. With that work as a background, Her/my wish is that a serious follow on study be made of the Goethean Scientists, who were fundamentally Steiner’s best students.
I recommend beginning with “Man or Matter” by Ernst Lehrs, and The “Nature of Substance” by Rudolf Hauschka.
When I write, I have learned to ride the Wind in the Soul as far as I can at that moment, and report (write, not lecture) what was thought in me, which is the most current and living. Keep in mind that Death – with whom I am very familiar, is often a surprise. [Wind: the presence of Fullness, and the fullness of Presence, aka: It thinks in me (Steiner), and learn to think on your knees (Tomberg)]
It is also Her/my wish that the Society and the daughter movements in particular, support this next work. It is to take place in the heart of the heart of the Threefold Social Order, as it already has reached the right maturity.”Threshold Problems in Thinking the Threefold Social Order” http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/thpts.html
Imagine a Spring Michaelic Festival, taking place each Earth Day. Interested environmental organizations have begun to file individual lawsuits, on that Day, where the named Plaintiff is the Holy Mother – Earth Mother. [If a corporation can be a person before the law, the certainly a Planet can be a Person before the Law.]
It is unnecessary to “win” these law suits. Rather we are drawing attention to the riddle of Nature’s self-aware sentience. The Media will be informed of this Rite, and loving a good story will eventually pass it on.
The defendant apex predator corporations will file a motion to dismiss. A tactic we can apply is to sue three of them at the same time, in each particular lawsuit. Seeking separation of defendants, the individual corporations may then attack each other [they did it, not me].
Once the suits are filed, the defendants will make a motion to dismiss, on whatever basis they choose. In most cases, there will be a hearing on the motion to dismiss, at which point we get to offer into evidence 13 books, as sufficient evidence to proceed.
Again, the tactic here is not to win, but to make the books part of the Story in the Court of Public Opinion. These materials lead right to Rudolf Steiner, and other related wisdom teachers. Awareness (links) of the daughter movements will also be part of the offered “evidence”, in the hearing on the Motion to Dismiss.
Visit my Shaman’s Law Firm for many details.
This link will also be revealing, as it includes the list of the 13 books, as well as links to all manner of Steiner resources. https://thecollectiveimagination.com/2023/01/17/celebration/
It is the purpose of all the above activity, to challenge the Religion of Scientific Materialism in the Court of Public Opinion. A zoom friend, who is a “devout” disbeliever in religions, still thought the very Idea of Nature as an aspect of the Divine Mystery, and its implications, would give hope to many souls all over the world.
Imagine the young, traumatized by much, discovering they have meaning beyond what scientific materialism sez is the “truth”.
To the reader who has adventured this far, let me suggest some additional reading:
“Physical and Ethereal Spaces”, by George Adams (Yoga for the imagination), and “Speaker’s Meaning” by Owen Barfield (Logos logic for the heart’s mind)
These next three knew each other via the Culmination Event.
Myself, who has united the Hermetic Science of the Ancient Egyptians with the Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner. See https://thecollectiveimagination.com
The works of Stephen Clarke, who has united ancient Kabbalah teachings with Native American Cosmology (his works are on my bookstore: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/joelwendt )
The work of Catherine MacCoun: “On Becoming a Real Alchemist – a guide for the modern magician”, where she unites Tibetan and Christian Alchemy. Amazon sells it. (If you get and read only one book, this book, … a treasure to have at bedside – and think of Raphael and Novalis)
And last, but certainly not least: A small book on the works of Liz Mackenzie, aka Barbara Gardiner, including her “The Shepherd’s Fire” and “Aesthetics of Economics and The Scottish Masonic Tradition In the Light of The Folk Spirits … A Meditative Study”
This little book is at my bookstore*, and is called: “Scottish Spirit on Fire” https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/joelwendt
Here is her meditation on the burning of the Goetheanum. Not for the faint hearted. https://thecollectiveimagination.com/2022/12/15/the-burning/
In 2004, I started a fast too lose weight. 12 days in I started having visions every morning on the cusp of waking from sleep. The fast lasted 45 days. Over the next year I wrote a book: “The Way of the Fool”
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And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive the trespasses of others …
It is possible to look at the world and despair. If we have faith (that is trust) in the Divine Mystery, we might suspect there is a deeper aspect, actually laid out right in the open … the world in all its elements being the Song of the Word. Simply construct your image of reality, working from the individual biography outwards.
A spirit comes to earth and lives a life, moment by moment, day by day, year by year. Everybody interacts intimately with other spirits, according to karma to some degree. All these intimate and immediate personal experiences forge each life of spirit in the alchemist’s fire of a time spent in matter.
Open to and remember your own suffering in the waters of desire. Ask yourself why you came to incarnate at this particular symphony of Nows.
Accept and honor your courage.
Accept and honor the courage of others, so many of which may have suffering greater than yours.
Make a list of those who you wish were otherwise than they are. Presidents, drug lords, … think for a moment of whatever is the worst of deeds.
Consider the magic that their life too is built one moment, one hour, one year at a time. Pause deeply now, feel the own dark ,,, picture your self committing murder or torture directly to another intimate spirit.
Or calm this power, and think of picking up a glass and throwing it against a painting on a wall.
Accept the reach or you own will in the halls and museums of your own biography … If you are there, God is there …
maybe you work against aspects of our experience, and favor others … that choice, and that which follows that choice, the Mystery Trusts us to define what it means …
your feelings of desire and need to and must – no choice not to act – is itself fire of own will …
everyone has those – we are butterflies in the making, or mushrooms maybe …. where metamorphosis lives … that is the leading edge of creation
the world burns in the dying and becoming of Western Civilization … for now the tsunami of history is waves of chaos …fire and water … does the weather not cry … or the seed bearers not work the fields … what we call climate is a lament … the skys unable to not join our woes … to know god, consider the creator in your own soul, as well as the nurturer … or not, for freedom goes that deep …
you are the igniting spark of the mystery each moment you act, … the Way is simple … trust your own judgment and choose … everyone else is doing it …
Fake Ancient Alien Theorist Foolishly Visits the Collective Imagination 