Karl Marx and Communism — The Cosmic Background

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Unrevised Notes of a Lecture by Willi Sucher

August 5, 1954, Hawkwood College, England

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Marxist Communism has based all its historical procedures on philosophical materialism from the outset. Marx was a pupil of Hegel’s philosophic idealism, which he approached, however, from the viewpoint of materialism. Materialism as a world conception and as practice is connected with Mars, and we should therefore consider the qualities of Mars in our solar universe. It is a cosmic catalyst, a condenser, as in the chemical process of binding to form crystals.

Our approach to the Sun is different from that of modern science, which, through its materialistic bias, sees it as a gaseous body. However, in spiritual science we regard it as a super vacuum, though even these words fall short of the true conception. The higher ego of the human being is akin to the Sun, in this respect, and to the Sun quality in the solar universe. As a vacuum, it draws in cosmic forces from the periphery of the solar system; it draws in zodiacal astral substance, which is converted at the Sun’s periphery and disintegrated by tremendous “fire” processes. It is this fire process that accounts for the Sun’s surface. The substances that enter do so through what we might call a staircase of cosmic spheres.

The outermost periphery of this staircase is Saturn, where the substance is more of an astral nature; then next is Jupiter with a more transformed etheric substance; then Mars, where the spiritual archetypes and thought foundations of all physical objects on Earth are found. A clash takes place in this sphere between the light of the Sun, as it streams out towards the periphery and into cosmic space, and the astral force or substance streaming in, as it is drawn towards the Sun. It is here that Mars acts as a catalyst. For herein are the spiritual archetypes of all physical objects, and it is here that we meet them after death. They are lit up by the spiritual light of the Sun and become approachable by our senses on Earth. For next to Mars the Earth comes next, which is also lit by the Sun on one side, while on the other side we face Mars — the night side of our Earth, so to speak. It is from this “night” sphere that the Earth meets the impact of the clash between Mars and the Sun, which we just mentioned. Thus the Mars archetypes then become involved in matter, furthered also by the influence of the Moon.

On the Saturn-Jupiter side of Mars — the further side of its sphere — is also the “night” side of Earth evolution. But on the occult Mercury (planet Venus) side, which is nearer the Sun, is what is called the “day” side, wherein we have to develop consciousness as the foundation of our whole future evolution. On this side — Sun-Mercury-Venus — is sublime illumination and transformation. On the Mars side is materialization. On the occult Mercury side is transmutation and spiritualization. This is the second half of the Earth evolution. Furthermore, all true occultism recognizes the Earth as having two separate halves of evolution — the Mars-half and occult Mercury-half, which stand on either side of the Earth and represent its two aspects. The first half is initiated by Mars, for thereby evolution enters ever deeper into materialization. This Mars-half has now ended, for if the Mars aspect had continued unchecked, the Earth would have become too hardened, like a super crystal in the cosmos.

However, at a certain moment the spiritual impulse came from the other side, the Sun side, when the Sun Spirit descended into Earth to establish new spiritualization processes. Some beings on Mars are reconciled to the normal processes of evolution, and that materialism must eventually be reversed into spiritualization. But as there are always two kinds of forces working in the planetary sphere, there are also other beings on Mars who wish the Earth to continue in its evolutionary descent and so come into the power of Mars. But the crucial point was the Christ Event itself. The declining forces on Mars want to make the Earth into a vast machine, which includes humanity as a part of it. This is bound up with certain Mars impulses in humanity.

All this introduces us to what was working in Karl Marx and his theory of the Ideal State Machine and the whole Earth as a set and rigid fixture, though the present form of Communism has little relation to his ideas. To understand this, we must once again revert to the spheres. Think of the Mars sphere also as deviating a little, as did Venus in a previous lecture, so that it also has contacts with the plane of the Sun through special gateways, or “nodes”, and that whenever this Mars sphere moves, these nodes point in different directions. The node of Mars takes nearly 6,000 years to move through one constellation; even so, it gives us much information.

At present this ascending or northern node of Mars is in the constellation of Ram, and the descending or southern node is in Scales. The southern node is sometimes known as the dragon’s tail, and the northern node as the dragon’s head. It moved from the constellation of Bull into Ram about the year 1400. Here again we touch upon an age that is very significant for humanity, the Age of the Consciousness Soul, when the silent working of that great Individuality, Christian Rosenkreutz, took decisive shape.

Whenever this Mars nodal movement happens from one constellation to another, it speaks of what takes place within the sphere of Mars, and there are certain forces that still wish to retain the Bull aspect of that sphere. For those Bull forces were the pre-Christian forces long before Christ, when this node moved from Twins to Bull and humanity descended more fully into matter. This extended even into post-Christian times. When Mars is connected with Bull, we receive these materializing processes. But when Mars is connected with Ram, it can come more directly under the influence of the Lamb of God and its patronage, and the forces of extreme materialization are called back. However, there are always forces, as yet, which wish to retain them. I have given you this necessary cosmic background to the whole subject of tonight’s talk.

Personalities who are connected with the development of Communism receive their inspirations from the sphere of this Mars node and the Mars sphere itself. Here we find the background of modern materialism in a cosmic sense. The whole Copernican system, too, is materialism’s background and expression; for the more mechanistic Copernican system of the universe came from the Mars sphere. Copernicus, in the spiritual world, received the impact of Mars through this Moon node as well, which had accelerated it. However, this system was necessary for our development of consciousness and spiritual freedom.

Let us take the nativities of the personalities connected with Communism, beginning with Karl Marx (right), who was born 5 May 1818. The nativity is an interesting moment, for here we can see the gift we have received when we come into incarnation, the “talent”. This is not determinism, but only a challenge to the soul, and always a choice. Karl Marx could have altered his destiny; he could have taken a different course. It is the same with all of us — what we do with our “talent”. With him, we see that he was conceived in Crab (epoch, or conception) and born in Ram. Also in Ram at the time of birth were Venus, Sun, the Moon node, and the Mars node. Also, remember that Ram is ruled by Mars. We also note that Mars made a loop in Bull at conception, and this can give an especially strong inclination toward materialism. (In fact, it has just looped at the present time, a month or two ago, though not in Bull. One could see it close to the Earth in the night sky, as representing the “night” part of the Earth.) Herein is the memory of the “Bull (Egypt-Chaldea) Age”. When Marx published his Manifesto on Communism in 1847, Mars made a loop in the Mars node in Ram, which showed the direct impact of Mars working through that Manifesto, and which still continues to form the foundation of a society that is completely mechanized and rigid. This was the first stepping stone. The “gate” (Mars node) was opened, and the symbol itself portrays this opening: > One is really shown an open gateway between Mars and Earth for these influences to pour through to receptive spirits.

We have to remember that these seven planets are integrated into our own human organism, which is the microcosm of every human being: Saturn in the crown of our head and in our skeletal formation, Jupiter between the eyes, Mars in the larynx, Sun in the heart, Mercury in the Solar Plexus, Venus in the region of the metabolism, and the Moon in the region of the reproductive organs. There are also three planets — Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — that have been discovered beyond these seven, including Pluto in 1930. They live in the structure of our aura, outside our physical body. Pluto, high above the head at birth or in gestation, can represent all that is healthy in occultism; for the future will come when we can again attain to spiritual knowledge and experience. However, Pluto can also take us down to the depths if it is in the lower organism in the asterogram, and can indicate the evil forces also, which work in the nine layers of the Earth. However, I do want to emphasize that we must never generalize about such things, as each individual needs an individual interpretation, and many other factors must also be taken into consideration. I would point out that in Lenin’s asterogram (just below, right) Pluto comes below the feet. His Sun moves from Crab to Ram, and Pluto and Jupiter work together from the depths (the feet).

Jupiter, in the higher sense, stands for sublime wisdom and thinking capacity. Jupiter can also be the other kind of thinking, for Ahriman can also work there and through it. We find also in Lenin’s asterogram that Mercury was in Ram at birth. We also remember that Mercury can represent the spiritual life of humanity. In our age, this capacity is mostly abstract and lifeless intellectualism. But here also, for Lenin, is the Mercury node, the gateway of the sphere, and the two then combine forces. The two nodes of Mars and Mercury will absolutely be combined in 200 or 300 years’ time, as long as materialism lasts, but we can see that with Lenin, the Mars forces have taken hold of the cosmic-spiritual forces of Pluto and Jupiter, and have turned the

Mercury spiritual forces into a kind of abstract intellectualism. We know, too, that Lenin died from a brain disease, which brought about a complete calcification of that region. He was born in 1870.

A third interesting finding (right) is that when Stalin was born, Mars was again in Ram, which Mars rules. Neptune was there as well, but not Jupiter. This is quite different. Lenin is a picture of the intellectual worker, but Stalin is the true Martian, the man of steel (Stalin = steel) and the Mars man of action. Neptune, like Pluto, should be at the head, but can be at the feet, where it is deeply connected with hate, as is clear in Lenin’s case. Neptune can be called an exaltation of Jupiter. Neptune up in the head can be wonderful, but down at the feet can represent this universal hate. It is at the feet of Stalin. And also in Lenin it is very low, between Fishes and Ram. Also Neptune was conjunct Mars at birth at the feet, where Mars looped.

Try to imagine the great battles in the sphere of Mars, where the progressive spirits wish to lift up this decadence from the abyss into which it is descending. It is a sphere of great contests, and those who wish can combine with materialism and with those who deeply hate the Earth. It is such as these who wish to make revolutions, such as Lenin’s revolution, which was the outcome of a tragic personal hate.

When Lenin was 16, his older brother was involved in revolutionary activities. He was arrested, and his colleagues were released. He was also given this choice, but refused, and was shot on 8 May 1887 — with Saturn in Twins. When Lenin heard of this, he said, “I shall make them pay for it.” This is the root of hate and was the beginning seed of the later revolution. We can see the deed put into and grow out of the Word. Those words, “I will make them pay for it”, as we have shown, act as a kind of deflector in humanity. He became a professional revolutionary and was arrested in 1895. In 1897, he was sent to Siberia when Saturn was in Scorpion, which we know to be a constellation of crisis. He was in Siberia for three years and then released in 1900, when Saturn was in Archer.

He was at the London Congress, which celebrated the birthday of the Bolshevik party, and we find the deflection from 1900 (Siberia) to 1903 (Saturn now in Goat) had the same time element as between his arrest in 1897 and his release from Siberia in 1900. Out of his intellectual brilliance at the London Congress, the Bolshevik concept was formed as a “majority”, by which he maneuvered both his party and himself into a commanding position.

We find another deflecting point in 1906 when Saturn was Waterman. He was always shifting from one place to another; it was a time of great transition, and by then the consequences of hate were becoming obvious. If a human being increases in hate, the result is that it destroys the organism as well as society. This is what began in 1906 to Lenin, when the first apparent results of his brain disease showed in blinding headaches and insomnia, which are the result of such an attitude of soul. His brain was already deformed.

About 1908-9, when Saturn was in Fishes, he was determined to become a dictator and was ruthless toward any who would not submit to him; so much so, that he eventually stood alone and in complete isolation. It continued through years of scandals. Stalin was already associated with him and acquired money by simply robbing a well-guarded transport of bullion in the Caucasus, while Lenin delegated some of his chosen “scoundrels” (his own name for them) to marry rich women to increase the coffers of the regime. The Central Committee was riddled with agents of his secret police, and he operated ruthlessly even against his own collaborators. By the time of the war, Lenin was already isolated in Zurich.

We ask ourselves how such things are possible — these party maneuverings. Lenin’s illness was physiological, resulting in a “stone” brain. His brain became calcified, as Mars is a binding agent, and it did not think or function any longer, but became like the brain of a dead man through which these Mars forces worked.

By 1914, with Saturn in Bull, he was completely alone. He was accused of clearing the throne of the Czars only to occupy it himself, for he acted like the Pope of Marxism, which only he was allowed to interpret or direct. By now he scorned democracy, and had become dictator in his role of professional revolutionary.

It is interesting how, as a revolutionary working for the masses, he maneuvered himself into isolation. By 1916, at the Zurich meeting, Lenin was quite isolated, and by then Saturn had returned to its original place in Twins, where it had been when his brother was shot, and his hate had manifested itself as a threat to revenge. No longer did anyone listen to him, and yet he had caused the revolution. This strange isolation by hate resulted from his creation of Bolshevism as a blow against the humanity he hated. The whole tenor of his soul seemed to be, “Eradicate this humanity, which has been offensive, and turn it into a machine for my purposes.” The 1917 revolution, with Saturn in the last degrees of Twins, was again a deflection from the events of 1914.

The Marxist background is divorced from Socialism, but is a kind of hyper-tyranny, based on the ancient principle of the absolutist. The super-materialization of the declining Mars forces is no longer justified. What is the answer?

Any impulse that serves the progress of human society in building the temple of humanity and brotherhood can only succeed by taking up the impulse of occult Mercury, not of Mars. For occult Mercury represents the second, “light” half of Earth evolution. It holds the healing impulse of spiritualization by Christ, and only thus can a healthy social order be established in the future. Materialism can never build this healthy social order.

The position is certainly very serious, for all seems to be devoted to materialism and utility. We have to find out the purposes of reconstruction that lie behind social “reforms”. If the intention is only human welfare in the sense of maintenance of material conditions, it will eventually fail. It is the spiritual future of the Earth that must be our only focus.

   

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