Modern Personal Destiny in its Threefold Aspect

 #160;#160;

Unrevised Lecture by Willi Sucher, August 8, 1954, Hawkwood College

 #160;#160;

Over the portal of ancient mystery temples was written the words, “O Man, Know Thyself.” We can extend this: Know the great universe in order to know ourselves and to know this great universe for its own sake.

Today we will speak of the threefoldness of the human being in regard to human destiny as we descend to this Earth from the divine world and then return to the spiritual worlds again. This threefoldness, which manifests in us as an archetypal foundation, has entered into this week’s discussions and the recurring picture of the Great Triangle. Let us imagine the great universe of stars in the depths of space. The stars beyond the planetary world from which we come belong to that realm in which we build up the foundation of our physical bodies, after having descended from the divine worlds. We then ascend again to work in the world and the cosmos, as an entity best expressed as a triangle.

We come from the highest cosmic regions, and in the furthest sphere of Saturn we are inspired to descend to our Earthly reincarnation. For Saturn is the manifestation of the Spirits of Will, Who initiated our Earth condition as part of evolution, saying, in effect, “From that direction and towards that future, let us go.” When we enter the Saturn sphere, we take up the reflection of that great impulse. First, we live in the all-embracing sphere of the fixed stars, which are high above and around the Earth; then, through the thrust of desire, we come down to the Earth through the planetary spheres. This is represented in our skull and backbone, whereby we stand as a spiritual cosmic force behind the whole skeleton.

We then enter the Jupiter sphere on the way down. Now we not only have a firm direction, but we make of that which has been initiated into something full of purpose, becoming our desires and ideas to work through. It is not with any individual purpose; rather, it is with the purpose of evolution on Earth, to use our capacities to work for what has to be done on Earth and for the great purpose of humanity’s future. We must take up what lives in the Jupiter sphere, and we can only work this up if we have ideas that take part in the great evolutionary wisdom of Jupiter. These ideas do not remain abstract mental forces, but permeate our entire organization as an instrument for thinking, through which can flow these great ideas and the plan of evolution of divine wisdom.

We then advance further and enter the sphere of Mars, where we take up the capacity to face the world we are about to enter. We need the Mars iron even in our blood. This is a process that brings about division or fissure. We were part of the whole cosmos, but Mars brings about separation between the self and the non-self and works into it. To avoid chaos, we need the great capacities of discrimination and distinction in order to distinguish, sort out, and know the world in which we live.

For this, we also need the capacity of the Word — language. We must be capable of calling a tree a tree and of knowing its real meaning; for in the end, all language is the expression of the object. Tree in German is Baum; in French it is Arbre. The sound lives in the meaning through words-as-mood; it is the expression of the object. We know that B has that embracing, spreading feel of the tree in German; in French, one can feel the oak tree battling its way into space; and in English, it is rooting and spreading forth, between Sun and Earth.

Then we come to the sphere of the Sun. We have seen the Sun as non-space in these last days, something that draws substance towards itself. It is the void in us that we fill with being; we surround ourselves with the world, while experiencing our own integrity. Here is the heart of the ego, which must become the divine I AM. Here we have to create, through the power of Christ, our own inner Sun, not purely spiritually through the powers of the mind, but as a creative faculty right down into the physical organization. This is the circulation of the blood, in which we realize ourselves as creative entities; for within it lives the Being of the Sun.

Now we come to occult Venus, and here I deliberately switch the name to its real occult character. With occult Venus, we enter the sphere where all is involved in the details of becoming intelligent human beings on

Earth. We prepare ourselves to be spiritually creative in order to take part in the Spirit of the Age to which we belong, intelligently and creatively as integrated human beings. This works into the human body as glandular function; it helps us realize ourselves as intelligent human beings in the age to which we belong.

Then we enter the occult Mercury sphere, the occult properties of Mercury, and descend still deeper, creating a fruitful relationship to the human beings around us, and seeking the folk with whom we wish to reincarnate. This is also connected with our organism in breathing and the harmonious interchange between the internal and the external world.

Ultimately, we enter the sphere of the Moon as the last stage, and this is the vessel into which we gather all past experience. It is chiefly connected with embryonic development in the human being, and it reflects our journey through the spiritual worlds between death and rebirth. It reflects also the chronological order of the universe during our embryonic development. These forces give us the power of memory and the power of physical reproduction. The Moon also gives us the power of reproducing what we have experienced in the spiritual worlds, but which has fallen into decline and decay in the physical organization.

The human being has thus been endowed with gifts and talents received from the spiritual world, and our task is to make them our own and increase them by transformation. Transformation is our task on Earth. We have to make an effort to integrate the cosmos in our own being, but this can only be done through the I. From where can we receive this on Earth? Only through the Christ Who endowed humanity with this necessary power. The One Who said, “I AM” integrates the cosmos into the higher self of each of us. It can take the lifetime of a human being and can best be summarized in our experience of the Lord’s Prayer, which was given to humanity as sustenance on the path, and which can lead us all through our lifetimes. It seems simple, yet the whole cosmos is integrated within it. Living on the Earth, we are taught by Christ as the great Spiritual Example and Guide, and we will picture this evolving triangle between Earth and Heaven.

Our Father Who Art in the Heavens: This begins from the Earth moving upward toward the heavens, by which we enter first the sphere of Mars.

Hallowed Be Thy Name: In Mars we take up the capacity of speaking the Word, of distinguishing objects by naming them. We wish to realize the divine Names of things, which are hidden as reality.

Thy Kingdom Come: We take up the impulses of Jupiter working for the evolution of humanity. Even now is sown the seed of the future Jupiter evolution, that new cosmos, which will be the “Kingdom”. Then we enter the sphere of Saturn.

Thy Will Be Done: Saturn is the manifestation of the Spirits of Will, that skeleton-thrust of the beautiful, forward-drive of evolution.

As Above in the Heavens, So Also on Earth: Here we return to the Earth after going through these spheres.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: Here we enter the Moon sphere, which gives us ultimately the material body in which we live. This is the daily bread we need.

Forgive Us Our Trespasses as We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us: Here we enter the sphere of occult Mercury, where the capacity is created in us of finding true relationships with all around us. However, these may not always be harmonious; and even if they are, the question still remains, “Are they fruitful?” Here we are constantly in danger of not finding the true element of relationship, or even of destroying it when found. These are our “trespasses”.

Lead Us In Time of Temptation: This is the occult Venus sphere. We do not know it when we speak those words, but the whole cosmos can live in the Lord’s Prayer as integrated in the Self of the human being. It can become the microcosm, but we need the quality of intelligent, creative human beings, creating out of the Spirit. There are dangerous possibilities of deviation. These are ambition, conceit, being overwhelmingly convinced of our own capacities and creation, in which case we have already fallen prey to the luciferic temptations. Or, we can get stuck in a brilliant intellect, unable to evolve all that is received in an ever-changing and transforming activity. Or, we can regard the intellect as non-individualistic, of developing a cold, lifeless intellect. There are many such traps, which are Ahriman’s temptations in the occult Venus sphere. These dangers are possible because living in us is the heritage emancipated from occult Venus and delivered into our own hands, thus exposing us to these dangers.

Deliver Us From Evil: Here we really enter the Sun sphere and yet return to Earth. For in the Sun, we meet that great void of which we have spoken, and out of it we have created the body in which we can live as a creative self. What lives through the eye, for instance, can only come out of the void in the lens of the eye. And the eye is closely allied to the Sun. It was received on the Sun and coagulated on Earth as a physical organ. The real void of the Sun is no longer met before birth, because it is the I AM, Who has united with the Earth. Christ no longer lives on the Sun; the adversary of Christ, Lucifer, alone lives there, while on Earth is the gravity power — Ahriman — that is an antagonist to Christ. “Deliver Us From Evil” is that weaving between Sun and Earth through taking the Christ Impulse into our heart.

There, in the Lord’s Prayer, is the whole cosmos as a transforming power, whereby we receive these cosmic gifts when traveling through the spheres and bringing them down to the Earth plane. When we have achieved whatever transformation we are capable of on Earth, we return to the spiritual world. Here is the great test as to how much we have transformed our talents, and of all that is received, it seems only a fraction. But the fruits we ripened on Earth will then be tested, and we ourselves will test them in those spheres of purification that have seemed to us as horrifying, but which really the soul desires and longs for, that we may carry out our own self-judgment. How much have we submerged of the gifts received, without transforming them? Or how much have we spiritually transformed? On the one side, we received the physical vehicle. Were we too deeply connected with it? We go through the Moon sphere after death, where we realize what went wrong with our connection with the material body. We can look objectively at what we have laid aside during our Earth existence and where we may have failed. We then advance to the occult Mercury sphere, where we judge our relationships, family, friendships, associations, religious and social institutions, and see them as they were received and more or less transformed. In every sphere, we see ourselves from the outside, and in this occult Mercury sphere, we will have to experience the pain we have given to others during life. We will receive help with this from the great spiritual Beings. On occult Venus, we will come to what Rudolf Steiner called the realm of activities, or “active spirit force”, and here we see what we have made of our activities, and to what degree we have raised them to the higher levels. We see also the cosmic archetype of each sphere and know how far we have fallen short. This alone is our “punishment”.

Now we are in the sphere of the Sun. This is the greatest test, because this sphere has now been deserted by the Christ, and we experience only Lucifer. Here we rely on how much we have experienced Christ on Earth, for we cannot stand erect in the Sun sphere without this realization of Christ on Earth. Then we go into the Mars sphere and are confronted with “Hallowed Be Thy Name”. This is the realization of the divine Names of all the physical objects on Earth, a growing up into active thought forms of all physical objects, which we will meet there.

In Jupiter, we will realize and experience the archetypes of all life. Not every human soul can rise to the sphere of Jupiter. It depends on our Earthly life. So we pray for enlightenment of the future cosmos and its aim. Then we ascend to take up the capacity of integrating ourselves, moving through the great stream of life.

This is St. John’s great “river”, flowing by the New Jerusalem, by which we redirect ourselves to return to the Father, taking up these experiences in the line of evolution, the Saturn hand of the Will of the Divine world. There we will experience all that is in the background of soul formation and activity, for on Earth we do not always realize the experiences passing through our soul being. But there we will experience the moving spirit of those divine archetypes which impelled our souls on Earth.

Thy Will Be Done, As Above in the Heavens, So Also on Earth. Here we have penetrated through to an imperfect realization of the archetypal Will of the soul force moving through all human experience. Finally, we return to the spiritual world of the fixed-stars to build up our new experience.

Through moving up through these spheres, we perceive our shortcomings and where we have either failed or succeeded in the realization of our intentions; and here we resolve to perfect it next time. So we go out into the cosmic world of the Zodiac and the fixed-stars, where we build up the spiritual foundations for our return.

This is the great purpose: the transformation of cosmic gifts and self-reintegration in time and in repeated Earth lives. Thus we can find by our efforts and by remembering the great words over the temple portals, “O Man, Know Thyself”, the archetype of threefoldness. For we are born out of the Father, and on Earth we pass through transformation and death in Christ. Only thus can we resurrect in the life after death and realize the Holy Spirit.

 #160;#160;

Ex Deo Nascimur.

 #160;#160;

In Christo Morimur.

 #160;#160;

Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus.

   

© 2012 Astrosophy Research Center ‒ ISBN 1-888686-11-1
All rights reserved. These Lectures are for private use, study, and research only and are not to be
reprinted for any other purpose without the written permission of the Astrosophy Research Center.