The Cosmic Background of the French Revolution III

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Unrevised Notes of Three Lectures by Willi Sucher

Hawkwood College, England - July 30-31 and August 1, 1954

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French Revolution, Lecture III - 1 August 1954

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Last night we spoke of the Golden Triangle, which is as old as humanity, but this was renewed and sanctified by the Events of Palestine. It is consolidated by the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the cosmos about every twenty years, in the three ever-changing zodiacal positions that make this moving triangle.

The 7 BC conjunction was intimately connected with the birth of the Shepherds’ Child of the Gospel of St. Luke and of that historical stream behind which stands the impulse of the Gautama Buddha, who helped to free humanity from illusion. In 14 AD (also in Luke), there occurred the great Temple sacrifice of the most perfect of Kings, Zarathustra, whose ego united with the Child of St. Luke’s Gospel. Then, in 34 AD, came the conjunction that heralded St. Paul’s great vision of the Risen Christ at the gates of Damascus. The first in 7 BC represents the sanctification of human freedom (liberté). The second concerns the stream of Kings, where the deed of Zarathustra is the great archetype for all Kings — namely, to lay down their life for their people and establish brotherhood (fraternité). The third implication, in the vision of Paul of the Risen Christ, presented humanity in its cosmic dignity — the “sphere of rights” in modern terms (égalité). Herein is reborn that Golden Triangle of the Temple Legend — the sign of Hiram the Temple Builder. This triangle is mobile because successive conjunctions are a little belated and shift slightly every sixty years.

If you can grasp the experience of this triangle, you will see how to do the right thing at the right time and will receive the right inspiration. It is a perfect wristwatch! It will never let you down, nor will it need to be wound up!

We spoke of the Scorpion constellation on this great zodiacal clock, which, with the other constellations, are as numbers on a dial, while the two planets in conjunction represent the hands, which indicate the difficult times. This is especially so in Scorpion, which is a sign of crisis and a red light on the “clock”. When a “hand” moves in it, it is a clarion call of change through crisis; but it need not be, for the future Scorpion can become the dove of peace.

When the “Damascus hand” moved into Scorpion, it was in the 8^th century. The 8^th and 9^th centuries were a time of crisis, when the old clairvoyance nearly vanished, and when the Council of Constantinople, inaugurated by the Roman Church, with the proclamation of our having no spirit. Then there arose the Grail Movement as an esoteric and new approach to the Risen Christ. The Christian, cosmic dignity of humanity was threatened, so the Grail Movement was established along with the dignity of the Grail Knight.

The “Shepherds-Buddha hand” moved into Scorpion in the 15^th to the 17^th centuries, and humanity’s freedom was endangered. The 15^th century began the new age of Fishes. All the representatives of natural science came to the foreground; yet, into this science, they shot their emotions, theories, and wishful thinking right across the line of vision of clear thinking and observation instituted by Buddha, whose aim was to prevent the vision of the external world from being blurred. However, that danger still threatens. So the conjunction in Scorpion then warned humanity of the danger to true freedom, and this danger was counteracted by Christian Rosenkreutz’s Rose Cross Movement, with its great Imagination of the Rose Cross. This opened the gateway to new vision. Its application, practice and meditation could help greatly in modern natural science. Behind the Shepherds, we see the mighty impulse of Gautama Buddha.

Toward the end of the 16^th century, Christian Rosenkreutz saw that something decisive must be done, reaching beyond the Earthly realm. In the resulting spiritual Council, it was realized that the danger lay between death and rebirth, when souls passed through the sphere of Mars, which had deteriorated into decline and astral tumult. Souls there took up impulses that threatened to blur the vision on Earth; in this lay a grave danger for humanity. So Christian Rosenkreutz induced his great friend, Buddha, to take up his sublime mission of

Christianizing Mars. At the moment when the “Shepherds” corner of the Golden Triangle entered Scorpion, on that very date, Buddha went to Mars to prepare its sphere for new influences in line with souls yearning for true freedom. This Event worked on through the following centuries.

This great individuality, Christian Rosenkreutz, was also present at the earlier time of crisis in the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th centuries, and again in the 15^th century, for he worked both in the Grail Movement and later in the Rosicrucian Movement. He is present in every century on Earth, and thus he was there also in the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

It is a Rosicrucian rule that the leader’s name can only be revealed one hundred years after his death. He was not present in the earlier part of the 17^th century, but he was there in the 18^th century, working through a personality called Le Comte de St. Germaine, but he also had other names and changed them, as names no longer meant anything to him. (A Count Weldon appeared in England about the same time, who is said to be associated with this.)

By the 18^th century, the “Shepherds corner”, or conjunction, had moved into the constellation of Archer. Then the green light appeared again, the crisis was over, and humanity could work more freely and progressively. In 1782, there was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (the Shepherds) at the head of Archer. In humanity there was a deep urge for freedom, and the awareness that something had to be done. There was a distortion of human society in France, based on modern natural science, as it was then, and this had a great influence on events. But society was not adequately capable to cope with this deep urge in humanity. Comte de St. Germaine read the cosmic clock and knew that something could be done.

The Count tried to show everyone that this was a moment of potential danger, which could only be met by clear thinking and deeds within the social sphere. At this Archer conjunction, Comte de St. Germaine tried to swing evolution into its truer direction. His warnings went unheeded, because of fear, slothfulness, and vanity. The structure of French society was too fixed to change by then. Eighteen months later, in 1784, he is supposed to have died, though this is questioned. He may have wished to dissolve the personality of the Count and start afresh. Human beings are free, but not to do just as we like from the sphere of emotions, without bearing the full consequences of our actions. Because Comte de St. Germaine was ignored, a certain destiny was created; out of that came denial, and the French Revolution arose.

The other planets were also interesting at that moment, as well as Saturn and Jupiter. Humanity has a choice of whether to go forward with evolution or following blindly along. We can distinguish between freedom and necessity. Spiritual insight shows us how to do the appropriate thing. If we reject this, we can fall into error — it is our choice. However, then we are subject to necessity, and it comes back to us hard and fast, like a reflection. This establishes a mirror for us that is constantly moving right through the cosmos, though it is more like a prism.

The French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. Things really started, and in France it was death to the Monarchy when King Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie Antoinette, were executed in 1793. This was very significant, for Saturn was entering Fishes.

In 1782, it was possible to change things into a more favorable direction, but it failed. The three great Ideals were then stalled, like ghosts, because this choice was not taken. Eventually, as always on such occasions, the dictator Robespierre came into rule. He was the true dictator of anti-freedom, and he came to power in 1793-4, when Saturn was in Aries. Then he was executed on 27 July 1794.

In 1797, Francois Babeuf, a political agitator, was executed because he went too far. One can consider him as the Father of Communism; he was a real radical. Then Saturn was in Twins opposite its Great Conjunction with Jupiter in Archer. This then occurred, and this shows a deflection of what was imprinted in the opposite constellations. Saturn is an impartial being, recording the world memory and universal history as a necessity toward evolving the future. The future redeems the past, and this is only possible through memory. Saturn provides this cosmic memory.

Saturn moved into Crab in 1799, when Napoleon (1769 - 1821) was established as First Consul and came through his own inner revolution. (There is about the same number of degrees between each event; see diagram below. From Robespierre to Napoleon, we find the reflection of events, or rather, its deflection. Napoleon is the “answer” to Robespierre. But we have to remember it is not Saturn who “does” it, anymore than it is the hands on our watch that dictate events. It is humanity. If we don’t choose the correct solution, it returns to us as catastrophe.

I can show you a similar mirror in connection with the Russian Revolution, and there is also a third such mirror in connection between the first and second world wars. (See Part I of Isis Sophia III - Our Relationship With the Stars.)

In 1804-5, Saturn was in Virgin, and Napoleon was crowned Emperor. Here, again, we find the “answer”, or deflection, to the Bastille and other events of the French Revolution. This was at first hopeful, but without the realization of the great Ideals that lay behind it, it became only slogans without inner power or strength. The monarchy died, but was resurrected in a worse form as Napoleon’s dictatorship, which was a falling back into ancient forms of monarchy, for Napoleon crowned himself.

This was a lesson that humanity needed, as future retribution can be a painful redemption of past errors, whereby we have to learn what we have refused to face; namely, that evolution is the responsibility of us all. This gives us a useful insight into spiritual freedom as a goal, from what was worked out — however chaotically — through the French Revolution. The whole circle, or cycle, of events was closed in 1812 with the Russian Campaign and later with Napoleon’s death.

Answer to a question: This recurring position, in a line between Bull and Twins, and then Scorpion and Archer, seems to be the axis of European crisis. It was the same in the great world wars. We have to remember that Jupiter is the Cosmic Thinker, and Saturn is the Cosmic Memory.

   

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