Tell me… am I thinking too much? Or can we make a real sacrament out of the debris of the everyday unwakeful routine?

Amazon Warehouse: hell on Earth

When I think about my son’s generation — he is now 13 — I get a wildly chaotic picture, speaking of North America at least. He is brimming with energy and a freely gifted optimism, yet he is beset by the gravity(1) of the conflicted morass of crises characterizing the world. And his peers sense all this too, And they know it, and he knows it. And they possess a kind of unspoken bond due to this, like a secret handshake distinguishing membership in their club. Not sought after. Imposed. Take money, for example.

Purchasing “Power”

Money has been a thorny issue since forever. Entire political ideologies have been formed, and killed over, in reference to it. And this happened after the Age of Enlightenment is held to have unlocked our global wisdom. We have a U.S. President who is psychologically consumed by the topic, and imagines that this is somehow not pathological. Putative romantic relationships between couples confront initial deal-breaker criteria at their very outsets because of it. Fear and treachery rule many human social decisions on it’s account. People, strangers, are almost ‘morally’ evaluated simply upon the basis of their perceived economic wherewithal. For children there is still an element of potentiality allowed in this categorical judging. But once adulthood is reached the conclusions become irrevocable. The space for perceiving the actual inner human qualities of an encountered person become more and more reduced. Due to this set of social circumstances and imposed ‘realities’ teenagers devote enormous portions of their time and psychic energies to scheming strategies for obtaining purchasing power and projecting supporting imagery at a time when they should rightly be exploring their own and others’ beings in what ought to be a state of relative joy and optimism filled with multi-directional potentials. How have we permitted this self-imprisonment? This interpersonal de-dignification?

Biblical Accounts of Christ’s Temptations

According to esoteric sources, the money problem is actually rooted within the earthly mineral condition — a kind of cosmic attribute of humanity’s earthly mission, and one which is existentially destined for humankind to either redeem or fail to. I want to test your patience and build some background by detouring here into a discussion of the three temptations which Christ confronted, in desert solitude, immediately after the baptism at the river Jordan. These temptations are mentioned in three of the four gospels (John omits it) and in one of these three, Mark, it is given only the briefest general mention. That leaves us with only Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts. But I will add to them the account given by Rudolf Steiner over a century ago in a series of thirteen lectures given in the Norwegian city of Oslo. His account is far more detailed and illuminating(2). Of course, you could raise the question as to its believability, as can also be done regarding the Biblical sources. I will let the value of this report stand on its own merit. Consider it and see how much it causes you to think further. And also, let us see how it might move along the general question which this post is considering.

Matthew described three temptations in the following sequence:
1 – Temptation to Convert Stones to Bread (to allay hunger)
2 – Temptation to Throw Himself off a Cliff Compeling Angelic Rescue (to prove he is God?)
3 – Temptation to Receive All the Riches of Earth (from Satan) in Exchange for Submitting (bowing to Satan)

Luke relates them in a slightly different order:
1 – Temptation to Convert Stones to Bread (to allay hunger)
2 – Temptation to Possess All Earth’s Glory (in exchange for worshipping the devil)
3 – Temptation to Throw Himself off a Cliff Compeling Angelic Rescue (to prove he is God?)

Aside from their sequencing, I want to highlight two other differences between Matthew and Luke in their narration of the temptations, the significance of which will be seen shortly. First, while Matthew speaks of Satan, Luke uses the term ‘Devil’. And second, only in Matthew does Jesus command the tempter to depart afterwards, rendered in the NIV version linked here as “Away from me, Satan!” (in earlier English Biblical translations the more memorable turn of phrase “Get Thee hence, Satan!” was used. In Luke it is simply mentioned that the Devil departed from Him.

A Deeper Look at Christ’s Temptations

In 1913, Rudolf Steiner, in repeated intense meditations, was granted access to many details about happenings in the life of Jesus of Nazareth between the ages of 12 and 29 — an interval of time about which the standard Gospels remain entirely silent. An amazing series of thirteen esoteric lectures given in Oslo was the result, during which Steiner warned the audience about the novelty(3) of what he was about to say, along with its absolute truthfulness and sacredness. He said that having received the ‘visions’ he was under occult obligation to relate them to this audience, regardless of any potential fallout.

To understand Steiner’s recounting of the Temptations it is necessary to know that he had determined there were two primary adversaries for Christ, something well known by the leading mystery schools two and more millenia ago. These figures were named Lucifer and Ahriman. Generally speaking, whenever ‘Devil’ appeared in the original scriptures it referred to Lucifer. Satan referred to Ahriman. Mephistopheles also was a name used usually to signify the Ahriman spirit. These correspondances are not uniformly correct because numerous translation errors occurred with time, and in fact the contemporary Christian orthodoxy has even lost sight of the fact that two seperate adversaries exist.

These two have distinct qualities and aims within the cosmos regarding opposition to the divine plan for humankind. Lucifer carries the stamp of Pride. His impulse is to usurp the Trinity and install himself as the sole ruler over human destiny. He also brings many gifts, such as cleverness, and artistic striving for beauty. He is confounded by any virtues resembling humility. It was Lucifer who approached Eve in the Genesis story. Ahriman wishes to distort truths and instill fear of the spirit and eventual complete disregard for it. He thrives upon ordered structured systematic intellect which impedes freedom. Ahriman is the Lord over Death, and the chief inspirer for a technology-colored corruption of Nature. He wants control, but prefers to remain concealed from human awareness. Whereas Lucifer acknowledges the spirit but wishes to usher humanity prematurely into its wonders without sufficient moral preparation so that he can supplant God in human hearts, Ahriman wishes to forever conceal the spiritual from humanity, substituting the firm belief that Matter alone constitutes all of the universe. Secrecy and deception is very much an Ahrimanic trait. He fears exposure and hates Love, which is a natural doorway towards spiritual awareness.

Holding this in mind, look now at what Steiner detailed about the three temptations, including their temporal sequence, in his Oslo lectures:

1 – Lucifer singly tempts Christ, offering Him all that is glorious and beautiful in the world if He will join Lucifer in his new kingdom. (essentially this is the 3rd tempting in Matthew and the 2nd in Luke)
2 – Ahriman next joins Lucifer and together they present the temptation to throw Himself down from a high place unto rocky ground (Lucifer appeals to His Pride saying that He need not agree to be hemmed in by Earth’s physical bodily laws for He will shield Him from gravity; Ahriman works upon Fear, saying he will protect Christ from any trepidations He may have about leaping)
3 – Ahriman says to Lucifer, Get Thee Hence!, for He wants to tempt Christ one last time but without help, in the belief that Lucifer is actually weakening his power. (this is the stones-into-bread challenge which appeared first in both Matthew and Luke’s accounts)

As with the gospels, Christ rejects the first two temptations, overcoming them easily. But the final temptation is more complex in Steiner’s rendition. Christ does not give in, but a dialogue ensues in which it becomes clear that the Christ spirit, freshly incarnated into an earthly and physical human body, has no previous acquaintance with the mineral realm and does not yet understand it.

In-Text Note: (Steiner admits this fact astounded him once he spiritually witnessed it. Also: conventional Biblical believers must bear in mind that according to Steiner Christ was not present upon Earth until the Baptism. For the first 30 years it was only Jesus, and after the Baptism it was Christ living within Jesus. This truth is not actually counter-scriptural at all, since the Gospels do not mention Christ before this point. But the orthodoxies do not do a very good job distinguishing Christ and Jesus and as a result followers of the dogma smush them together indiscirminately, in general.)

It is this final temptation which we will focus upon from here onwards, because it is precisely this which entangles us with the realities of money. Neither spirit “wins”, Christ nor Ahriman/Satan. It is a standoff. But Christ must utilize the rest of his life within Jesus to come to a complete victory over the Ahrimanic forces of the mineral world — and money. This shows how deeply entrenched within humanity are the temptations and fears around money and having to work for one’s sustenance — food. For this is the true meaning of converting stone — metal — into bread. It is also mysteriously connected with why Christ is forced to use the vehicle of monetary temptation and betrayal (via Iscariot Judas) to effect his capture and the Crucifixion sacrifice. In Rosicrucian lore, the two thieves executed with Christ at Calvary represent minions, if you will, of Lucifer (the thief on His right) and Ahriman (the thief on His left). Lucifer can be overcome by men fairly easily if one can master his own prideful ambitiousness and retain a humble dedication to his kinship with all of the world. But to overcome Ahriman is a deeper challenge, presenting as it does myriad ethical dilemmas around balancing what is right or good and securing financial security throughout life for self and kin. And aside from being the core existential issue of the present times, it will persist into the future culture as Man’s central inner task — a challenge which will require the Christ force — within human souls — to defeat or redeem.

Ahriman’s Sting

At this point, before returning to money per se, it will be helpful to summarize the final dialogue between Ahriman and Christ, as presented by Steiner:

Ahriman to Lucifer: Lucifer, I cannot use thee, thou but hinder me. Thou enhance not my power but weaken it. I bid thee hence now.

Ahriman to Christ: Turn the stones into bread! If thou hunger in this body, and would boast thy Divine Power.

Christ: Man lives not by bread alone, but by the spiritual forces which emanate from the spiritual worlds.

Ahriman to Christ: Thou mayest indeed be right, but that cannot prevent me from keeping a certain hold upon thee! Thou knowest only how the Spirit acts, the Spirit who descends from the heights; thou hast not yet lived in this world of men. There below in the human world, there are many men who must perforce make stones into bread, who cannot draw nourishment from the Spirit alone.

(Here is the point where Ahriman reveals a truth about the mineral conditon, Earth, for which Christ had no previous awareness having existed only in the spiritual realms. He did not know that on Earth it was necessary to turn mineral substance into metal, to money, to obtain bread.)

Ahriman to Christ: Men on Earth need to nourish themselves by means of gold. That is the hinge point where I still retain power. And I shall use this power!

The Mineral Essence

The more one really sits with this picture the more astonishingly is revealed our relative ignorance about what the earthly condition, the earthly mission, actually entails for mankind. We tell ourselves that we understand what Matter is and hold physical science up proudly as an intellectual edifice. (And often rightfully so.) But we’ve not scratched the surface of what Matter implies spiritually. In this realm, at least a portion — and for most the lion’s share — of our daily sustenance must consist of material stuff and must be purchased. By labor or cunning or nowadays increasingly technical contrivances. And each such instance of labor and contrivance is fraught with moral complexity and therefore karmic consequence. It is fascinating that the newly earthbound Christ must live with this puzzle for three years, and that we all live with it still. The essence of this question lies very close to the heart of what earthly existence is all about, and the riddle which humanity must solve during its allotted eras upon Earth. The Ahrimanic forces are very adept at de-humanizing social communion and the entire cultural fabric by clouding this economic problem with deeper and deeper layers of indirection and technical haze while playing, all the while, upon very real human fear. In truth, the Luciferic hindrances are all solvable with more personal effort and commitments to virtue but the Ahrimanic hindrance constitues an entrenched inner battle within human hearts which will persist until many further epochs play out.

Possibility of Redeeming the Sacred

What can be done? All kinds of researchers have been increasingly involved with this problem. Universal Basic Income, as distributed by governments or something resembling them, has been a proposal in various forms for a few decades now. Battles of ideals rage around what constitutes too much “socialism” or too much testosterone-fueled survivalism. And because religions mainly operate with a dogmatic coloration, the various sects align their moralities with extremes in both directions. The techno elite, the billionaires, have in large part already concluded that the only workable global future will need to involve 99% of the masses subdued within a miasma of virtual entertainment while they, the awake chosen, get to brainstorm the necessary management decisions and enjoy the bulk of what the luxury-privileged deserve. These people are already entirely in the cognitive clutches of Ahriman and can imagine nothing other.

There are lots of creative non-evil ideas and more must come, but I want to return to the simple act of trading goods. Buying and selling things. Respecting human work and re-investing it with its inherent dignity. It truly used to be that the postman, the logger, the midwife or nanny, the tutors and teachers, the sanitation workers… all these vocations carried a dignity within them. Now, we have degenerated, viewing service workers of all kinds as unfortunate dwellers in a drudgery jail thankfully somewhat less fortunate than our own circumstance in life. We do not acknowledge the divinity in their service and neither usually do they. Yet how rapidly would everything collapse if but a certain proportion of these workers became fed up and simply discontinued their labors, consequences be damned? Those type of scenarios are not as remote as supposed, and the only thing holding the glue in place is human kindness and a sense of community, what is left of it, not money. If money loses its purchasing power, which is possible under many plausible outcomes, the only thing left will be civility. Is there in place right now enough of a human foundation in our various institutions to supply the sufficient degree of mutual civility? I have my doubts.

But keeping Faith, and Hope carries magical strength in seed form. Rather than ending this excursion on a note of resignation, I want to stubbornly offer a simple response that anyone can execute, and indeed enlarge and personalize, within everyday life. A practical beginning which anyone can commit to and deepen as a life practice. It is simply to reposition the human contacts that are made in all of our daily transactions at the top of everything else in terms of importance. Whether we encounter phone service agents, clerks, minor ‘experts’ in various fields, volunteers, cashiers, messengers — anyone human — they all must be treated with genuine respect and brotherly empathy. We must effortfully recognize the dignity within each person we happen upon, and honor it. The sheer humanity of task-doing of every conceivable social kind must be reinvested with our authentic respect and appreciation. Associated dollar quantities should not enter into this at all. Each personal encounter must be seen for what it truly is, the Ahrimanic deception aside, namely a potentially powerful and creative meeting between two kindreds locked into a similar illusory ‘fate’ for one moment. We must raise the other up and be open to having ourselves raised as well. Service must come to be experienced as a social sacrament. Imagined isolation must be melted away in the potential miracle space of newly heightened interaction attitudes. Buying, selling, and working must be transformed into gifts of the self. That is the crazy shift in perspective which can trigger a gradual ascent out of our perceptual drudgery. Everyone occasionally sees this in life, and is surprised and warmed by it. It must become a generational ideal. Social warmth must become the new global currency.

_______RS

Notes:
(1) The contrast between the complexion of my own coming-of-age years and what is on offer now could hardly be more stark! In those days we, our cohort, were pervaded by a conviction that all things were possible and that the vast majority of such possible things were inherently good and would come to fruition during our ‘golden’ watch. At present, it has become far more nakedly obvious that the general state of things is entirely dependent upon the collective summation of our individual moral impulses, not our array of tools and technologies. And I believe we are now only at the tip of that iceberg of awareness.
(2) To those interested in Christianity from various vantage points, I would have a hard time thinking of anything more recommendable that I’ve come across in life, than the series of Rudolf Steiner lectures given in 1913 in Oslo under the rubric “The Fifth Gospel”. Especially, on the theme of money, there are these two audio versions of the 4th and 5th lectures from that series. In fact, whether one has a relationship to Christianity or not, or thinks they do or not, these talks are absolutely mind-blowing and potentially life-changing.
(3) Steiner remarked on the occasion that he took some solace from the final words of John’s gospel which intimated that many more wondrous things took place during the life of Christ on earth and that there were not enough books in the world to write down all of them. He used this to warn rigid believers who insist, quite unjustifiably, that because something is not Biblically mentioned, it cannot have happened. This stance, which is often confused for doctrinal devotion, is actually a form of closed-off dogmatic incuriousity when examined more deeply.

For those interested I once took another stab at this general moral puzzle some years ago when writing about the nature of work, looking from a slightly different angle.

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