The Spiritual Event of the Twentieth Century, An Imagination

By Jesaiah Ben Aharon

The Importance of This Book for Members of The Spiritual School of Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner; for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

This remarkable little booklet was first published in 1993 by Temple Lodge. It formed part of Ben Aharon’s masterpiece The New Experience of the Supersensible (1995) but wisely Ben Aharon decided to publish them separately. I have already written on The New Experience of The Supersensible (see Inconsolatimus in the volume entitled Selected Works by E.A MacKenzie) I now propose to complete that overview.

It is necessary to say that the study of The New Experience of The Supersensible was not taken up by sufficient numbers in the exoteric Anthroposophical Society and consequently the events described in the Spiritual Event of The 20th Century have more or less passed it by. This unfortunate situation, of course, could easily be rectified were a sufficient number of members capable of following the content of this major work by Ben Aharon.

Alas, it is a work in Epistemology and Anthroposophists are not noted for their love of Epistemology as is evidenced by the fate of Irina Gordienko’s forensic analysis of what passes for thinking in some leading Anthroposophists.  Gennady Bondarev’s work Religion of the Thinking Will Organon of the New Cultural Epoch (published in German 2004 and in English 2010) suffers the same fate.

However it is not my purpose to address the epistemological deficit in the exoteric Anthroposophical Society, but to approach this booklet as a christian esotericist of the Michael School of Spiritual Science.

This said, if we are to follow the further course of the Event of the 20th C into the 21stC we have first to grapple with the fact that this booklet contains not an Imagination but a vision. It is not a pure Imagination in the esoteric sense elaborated by RS, for it is the result of the faculties of Imagination and Inspiration working interwoven.

Now all those born after 1950 have a different relationship to the faculties of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition than those born before that date. That is not merely something handed down as anthroposophical doxa but a living fact for those living the new experience of these faculties. In all those born after 1950 lives some element of the vision contained in Ben Aharon’s book. Ben Aharon observed the spiritual realities contained in the booklet on his way to incarnation in Israel in 1955. I observed the same realities on my way to incarnation in Scotland in 1953...Prokofieff likewise to birth in Russia in 1954 (?). And you dear reader if born at this time did so also.

These incarnations took place through the spiritual “fallout” of the atomic bomb. In other words, to reach the earth we had to pass through the devastating cosmic experience of Ahriman’s Star, the Anti-Zarathustra Star. We had to experience it from the spiritual world as the Aristotelians had had to experience the Zarathustra Star and Incarnation and Life of Christ from the spiritual worlds. We had to pass through a sphere around the Earth where Man’s Inhumanity to Man and Materialism was actual as a kind of cosmic girdle, separating the Earth from the spiritual cosmos of the holy hierarchies.

This cosmic moral vacuum caused by Man was the “hereditary” stream on which Ahriman would descend from Cosmic being to Human being. He was called to birth by humanity. Rudolf Steiner had already met him as he passed from the Archai to the Archangelic realm through his observation of the possession of Nietzsche and an aspect of Philosophia Perennis.

The processes observed by the post-1950 generation were the passing from Archangelic to Angelic realm and Ahriman’s successful Archangelic activity as the double of European Folk Spirits in Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia.  In other words in North, South, East and Centre Europe a counter Folk Spirit inspired Fascism, Nazism and Bolshevism using illegitimate Archai forces (cf Thousand Year Reich)

This moral vacuum through which we had to pass was unlike anything ever before experienced by human beings on their way to incarnation. Only the Aristotelians who were with RS during the Incarnation of Christ experienced something vaguely like it; but there they experienced the departure of the Cosmic Christ from the Sun to the Earth.

In the years 1933-1954 (the 21 years it takes for an ego to be born on earth in a human body) the actual Earth itself was invisible from the Spiritual World. The Earth Ego, Christ, was invisible to the spiritual world. It was during these years that we were travelling to incarnation. Human will forces actually threatened the existence of the Earth and all its beings and made it invisible to the Spiritual World until the explosion of Ahriman’s Anti-Zarathustra Star.

The cosmic fallout from this event was experienced in the spiritual world as a deepening of the darkness of dark light (Sorat) and dark matter (Ahriman).

Through this impenetrability those of us on the way to incarnation had to find The Moon. In other words, we had to call to life within us an incarnation in the Jewish/Yahweh stream when Michael was our Folk Spirit, for Michaelic courage and iron were the only guide. This also enabled those departing this stream as described by Ben Aharon to be guided beyond the darkness of Man’s Inhumanity to Man. Many conversations of world shattering intensity took place in the Moon Sphere of the Earth during this period. Many a conversation between the rising Aristotelians led by Ita Wegman and Elizabeth Vreede and the descending Platonists also managed to take place.

During the 7 years between 1945 and 1952 this darkness was at its most impenetrable. Depending where one was on the Moon Path, and from which constellational direction one was karmically advancing toward incarnation, depended what one saw of the processes and Events.

Ben Aharon’s vision is an accurate capture of these Events in the Spiritual World, but it is a gift of Lucifer, a gift of Lucifer’s Inspiration. What do I mean by this?

No one who did not experience this with the intensity of those born in its immediate aftermath can understand the difficulties of bringing this to consciousness. It requires a divine intervention.

Ben Aharon describes this in his biographical notes.

He experienced the John Gospel words through Lucifer, the Light Bringer. This Inspirational content marks all his written work and the profoundly Christian nature of it. But we are a generation who by force of destiny had to follow Ahriman into birth.  Ahriman’s Anti-Zarathustra Star marked our entry into this world. Ahriman who is Lucifer’s karma.

Ben Aharon himself does not say it is a gift of Lucifer, that is my perception of both my own and his experience, because this is a shared biographical detail between us (and others)- the nature of the divine intervention necessary to bring these events to consciousness.   If we are not exact about this, those of us who have experienced it biographically, then we fail to notice adequately the Ahrimanic “pay back”.

A vision such as this marks us all, we all carry it. Those born further away in Time from the Events have an easier time in that their souls do not “burn” with Holocaustic heat. This applies to those born before 1945. Those of us whose profoundest spiritual experiences occurred in the heart of the Event have a duty to clarify, as far as we can, the destiny of these Events and the personalities who participated in them. This will be a sacred duty spanning many incarnations, for it was our solemn oath and promise to those in the agony of Man’s Inhumanity to Man whom we met as they flew from the horror that was the Earth during those years. Our promise was to make good the anthroposophic deficit that had led to this catastrophe (see Buchleitner)

RS, the leader of the Esoteric Michael Spiritual School of Spiritual Science observed the Events from the outermost reaches of the then known Earth Universe, Pluto. ( see work of Dr K Buchleitner)

The other teachers of the earthly school were on Earth; Marie Steiner till 1948 and Ita Wegman till 1943. The teachers of the First and Third classes were in the spiritual world whilst the teacher of the Second Class was on earth. Between earth and heaven these teachers beheld the event of 1945. That is to say, they held it in their being and in the Being of Michael and in the Being of the Michael School. And they, and many other Teachers of whom RS spoke, shielded and protected the being Anthroposophia, from its effects.

It was Ita Wegman and Elizabeth Vreede (d 1943) who accompanied the victims of the Final Solution, the conscious act of the Nazi hierarchy, into the spiritual world darkness. The Counter Star in the East, the Anti-Zarathustra Star, added unspeakably to this.

Those whom Ben Aharon saw at the Heart of The Event were in fact the Platonists, himself included, (of whom RS spoke in his last lectures) and Ita Wegman and Elizabeth Vreede. RS was not in the Moon sphere of the Earth participating in these Events.

At the very heart of Ben Aharon’s vision is then a prophetic turning point in which those ascending hand over to those descending what very little can be effected in such never before experienced conditions. The Event of the 20thC contains a prophetic vision, a vision of NOW and THEN

For we are currently living the Descent into Moral Darkness of the economic sphere. (see Shepherds’ Fire)

This is giving rise to the same economic conditions as existed after WW1 in Germany caused by the reparations visited on the German economy by the Allies, and which created the seed bed of WW2. The World Economy means that no country is now exempt; there can be no declared “neutrality”. The Reparations visited on the world by the immoral excesses in the politico/financial strata are now biting, as whole countries become bankrupt. The world is bankrupt, and we are the upbuilders.\

Ben Aharon did not observe the progress of RS to Pluto or he would not have located him at the heart of the Events, which took place in the Moon sphere of the Earth. Depending on karma the Mercury/Venus forces alone gave this vision. That is why the prophetic nature of his vision has eluded him with the necessary clarity. But surely that is the task of his brothers and sisters to assist him to this clarity?

It is in this spirit of Sorority that this is written. For it is dangerous for a man to have followers, a danger to the man himself and a danger to the world. Rudolf Steiner suffered the fate of a man needing “understanders” in a generation who much preferred to be followers. The world suffered. The sacrifice among Ben Aharon’s followers seems not to have been heeded properly.

It is the mixture of Imagination and Inspiration that clouds HOW prophetic this vision is. Out of it has came the extraordinary leading edge work in Epistemology; and an unfortunate inability to recognise the work of others which does him no credit whatsoever and indeed is yet just another anthroposophical disgrace, to add to a list of many.

His latest work builds on the fact that his epistemological work will begin to have effect 100 years hence in academia, since the AS has failed to take it up. It also shows that he now seems to have parted esoteric ways with RS completely and is simply pursuing his own version of events... Ben Aharon’s followers should be aware of this.

It is his freedom, as it was Prokofieff’s to found another Esoteric School. Prokofieff’s attempt to found his within the AS has ended in personal disaster. Ben Aharon’s School is just that; Ben Aharon’s School. Let no one be under the illusion that either of these is a manifestation of the Esoteric School of RS.

At least they should have the spiritual courage to come out of the esoteric closet on this one.

The Spiritual School of Spiritual Science was the only thing to remain intact and is reachable still. I have made public my route to it. I have demonstrated its life force, its livingness. If there are no eyes to see and no ears to hear, then there are no eyes to see and no ears to hear among anthroposophists. That I accept as a fact of this life, woeful and lamentable as it is.

In the next piece I hope to continue this theme by looking at the nature of the Ahrimanic Initiations of the 20thC .

Michaelmas Tide 2012 E. A. Mackenzie

the next piece

in·i·ti·a·tion  (-nsh-shn)  [thefreedictionary]
n.
1.
a. The act or an instance of initiating.
b. The process of being initiated.
c. The condition of being initiated.
2. A ceremony, ritual, test, or period of instruction with which a new member is admitted to an organization or office or to knowledge.
3. The condition of being knowledgeable.
 

In Spiritual Science Ahriman is the name given to the Spirit of Prematurity by RS.  For a vivid and exact picture of his working during the lead up to the Iraq War see the testimony given to the Chilcot Enquiry by Claire Short MP, International Development Minister in the British Cabinet at the time. http://youtu.be/ohE543GldT8  see also Shepherds’ Fire.

What was at stake at that time was peace in the holy land, both exoterically and esoterically.

 Ahriman is also the father of Lies, and the spirit of “the ends justify the means”, a co-working with Lucifer.

Among those incarnating after 1950 were leading Platonists and many of those incarnate at the time of Christ.  Please be aware of the anthroposophy of this.  Many, many, many were those who walked the Earth with Jesus Christ, and many, many, many, more were those who met him in his Risen Body during the 10years of his sojourn in this body.  These were the Lving Percepts, the counterparts of the Living Concepts, the Aristotelians in the Spiritual World at the Time of Christ.

 The Ahrimanic impulse had to make sure that this never rose into the consciousness of those concerned.  The Ahrimanic impulse had to kill the Christ Impulse.  This is Herodian.  This is the politics of Herod.  So the generation in which these souls were born was subjected to “chemical warfare”. Global materialist (ie using material substances) initiations designed to kill the faculties spoken of by RS through which the Christ Impulse, the Etheric Christ, is visible.  This is a characteristic of Ahriman given by RS.  He would usurp the natural process of initiation, which is a Life Process, by inducing mass initiations.

The AS, in thrall to the notion of The Great Initiate, failed to produce sufficient counterweight to the overbalancing of the scales.  If one sees before one’s inner eye the carving of The Representative of Man, the balance held, then one imagines this skewed by the Ahrimanic ability to plunge deeper into matter and the inner earth, then one will see that the only counter “weight” is for Lucifer  to rise “higher.”   And if one carries this imagination further with Ahriman plunging toward  the centre of the earth and Lucifer soaring off above then one see that central figure recedes and disappears into the darkness of infinity.  That is, into etheric space. It cannot help but disappear.  This is a fact of  moral  projective geometry and physical projective geometry, both of which comprise  the true art of RS as expressed in his woodcarving; the only thing to survive the conflagration of the burning of the only Goetheanum. (see Shepherds’ Fire)

Crucifixion 9/11 by e.a.mackenzie (b 1953)

This is what the Spiritual World experienced during the period 1933-1954. The Christ in Man disappeared into a spiritual void.  Material is a spiritual void.  The Goetheanum burned again and all that remained of Truth on Earth was the material wood-carving of RS, invisible to the Spiritual World.

Now if one wants a more recent rendering of this, then exactly the same experience is given in the poem by Joel A Wendt written on 9/11.   There the plunging into the darkness of the centre of the Earth by the souls whose lives were sacrificed on that day is vividly described.  In other words, this man effects the same soul deed for the sacrificial  souls sacrificed on American soil as that done by Ita Wegman and Elizabeth Vreede for the souls sacrificed on central European soil during the years surrounding the Anti-Zarathustra Star.   But this time it is done, not by dying, although he did, twice during his heart attack, but in full day consciousness.

At the start of the Michaelmas Tides of 2001 a mockery of the John Gospels appeared in the skies of New York and over Washington.   Metal Eagles, a distortion of the good of passenger liners, destroyed Joachim and Boaz.  The Folk Soul of America is plunged into terror and fear.  The pillars of the Temple are ground into dust.   The clouds of dust and vaporised bone settle to reveal two “saviours” of mankind, again a mockery of the two Jesus children...  George Bush and Tony Blair who will exact vengeance on the perpetrators and declare a World War..on Terror.

The moral anthroposophical deed of accompanying the departing souls in the True Spirit of the American Folk Spirit is performed on behalf of us all by all American anthroposophists capable of doing it and their capability is voiced for them by Joel A Wendt who experienced the descent and simultaneously was able to describe it anthroposophically.

This leads us to our duty as a generation of christian esotericists.

How is an esoteric fact established?  This is the burning question.  How are all the new esoteric facts given by RS established ?  Are we just believers?

David Livingstone (1813-1873) the famous Scottish explorer disappeared into the heart of darkest Africa.    Central Africa was then an unknown. There he saw a waterfall unlike anything ever seen in Europe.  But Europe had many waterfalls, this was just bigger. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Livingstone

When the first elephant was reported to Europeans it was a nonsense.  Nothing can convince an Irishman of the existence of an elephant until he has seen it with his own eyes.  Even then he will not understand an elephant if it appears on the streets of Dublin..ie passively.  He will only have the opportunity to understand an elephant if he observes it in its own country.

RS gave us our “own country”, the land where the spirit is at home, wher esoteric facts are seen.  This country he called Pure Thinking or Etheric Thinking and he gave us the map to this country in The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity.  Those who choose not to follow this map are of course perfectly free not to.  But they cannot call themselves spiritual  explorers ,researchers and scientists of the Michael School of RS.

David Livingstone was all three and a devoutly religous man.  That is why he is still loved in Africa.  Here lie roots of the anti-slavery movement.  With such men.

Those who choose not to follow the map can call themselves anthroposophists and sponsors of the exploration if in fact that is what they do!  And they benefit from the spiritual riches brought back!

 Just as at the time of Livingstone, many country’s explorers were in Africa and many learned Societies were sponsoring exploration for their own ends: so it is also in our Time. (see Aesthetics of Economics)

Neither I, nor Joel A Wendt have any anthroposophical sponsors or any sponsors at all save those who love us.   That is because European anthroposophy does not want us.  Well perhaps it is that American Anthroposophy also does not want us.  Nothing would surprise me with anthroposophists.  That RS wants us is beyond question.  That means that both of us have died literally, by massive heart attacks, in the pursuit of our exploration on behalf of ..whom?   With no access to anthroposophical medicine, no money and no future... on behalf of whom?   We ourselves know on behalf of whom.

An esoteric fact is established by sight...by insight.  By at least triangulated insight and by the souls who thirst after Truth.  The souls who cannot yet see can feel.  Their duty is to keep their explorers alive until sufficient soul/spiritual territory is won for Michael and Christ such that mankind as a whole can benefit.

 The AS of 1923 failed to do that.  The AS in Europe has continued its failure.

The AS is again being tested.  You dear reader are being tested.  It matters not to me whether I am kept alive or not, except that common humanity demands it.  I already died on Epiphany 2009.  It matters not to Joel A Wendt.  But you can bet your bottom dollar it matters to your karma as an anthroposophist and the future of mankind.

 And please, do not worry about Sergei, he is getting the very best of treatment after a life of anthroposophic ease in the very heart of Dornach, with the best of bio-dynamic food, all the endless spiritual chit chat and lectures anthroposophists can muster, international travel, holidays, fresh air and devoted followers.      Irina Gordienko,  killed in Moscow by a hit and run driver, left behind an American/Russian child, a motherless child.

If you would like a look at the woman who was robbed of her chance to bring peace to the middle east and how it affect your social karma, http://youtu.be/1-JyXKgaf-s

if you would like a look at Irina Gordienko’s crucifixion by her dear brother and sister anthroposophists then please, look.