Anthroposophicum

Spiritual training for initiation

Author: Richard Cooper

  • Economics Newsletter #2: Corinthians Paul, the Etheric Christ and Economics

    Economics Newsletter #2: Corinthians Paul, the Etheric Christ and Economics

    Dear friends,

    In this issue, we explore associative economics and its relation to esoteric spiritual work. Today’s edition contains some links to the recent seminar on soul metamorphoses.

    I am very grateful for the comments, collaboration, offers of contribution and feedback received through the week, and also sharing and support, as it really does accompany the spiritual work and development of this work. I have strived where possible to footnote strange anthroposophical terminology for those not used to it. Also “Satan, Michael, etc”.

    Part of this work involves carrying others’ questions in our souls and working to weave them into the new text. But also encouraging the work, study, and writing of others. As we shall see, this too is the subject of this article. For no one is really a silent witness here. We all live our economics. We all have something to say here. Because these economic matters affect us all, if not now, then in the future.

    Working with Corinthians Paul, the Etheric Christ and Economics

    1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ESV): “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.”

    Why Paul? Because Paul is as a representative for us of the Return of Christ in the Etheric and a community to contain it.

    In his letters to the Corinthians, he is espousing on what a community in Christ means. He is describing all the practicalities and ways of life in which people might work together to actually live and awaken in Christ. Not just as some irrelevant side part sect within an empire, but a powerful force to change people’s lives and karma. There is a secret in this term “bought with a price”, and some of that secret we will unfold here.

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  • Economics Newsletter #1: Responding to the Economic Times we Live in

    Economics Newsletter #1: Responding to the Economic Times we Live in

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  • Anthroposophicum as an artistic initiative

    Anthroposophicum as an artistic initiative

    Rudolf Steiner once said something about spiritual attainment that we really should take extra heed of (and forgive me, for so shortly inserting brackets) but I do not know precisely where in the GA landscape he said this, so the sticklers out there shall have to squirm. But it is a piece of encouragement that he gave to the first anthroposophists.

    He said that one should be able to develop quite far, that is, even within a number of weeks to a month; and that we really should be able to, through meditation on Occult Science an Outline for example, to inwardly behold many of the things that he spoke there of (that is, to behold those images in spirit, for ourselves, through our own inner work), and to even more succintly (see our very own personal relation to them, to see ourselves in spirit, back in those times):

    To see, for example: with which part of humanity we were connected, with which planetary exodus we accompanied others, back in Lemuria before the withdrawal of the moon, and further the sun, in Hyperborea.

    Does this sound beyond our abilities to our spiritual ears, to reach such a point in so relatively short a time frame?

    Do we hesitate to ask whether we are connected to the planets Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn in our minds, or if we relate more to the younger souls that departed with Venus and Mercury? Or are we like the sun, connected to the sentient soul, able to stay longest on Earth after others have gone?

    I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I have observed some things in my life and in the lives of others.

    We are all different depending on whether we focus on knowledge, social connections, or creative activities that are deeply rooted in us. This influences the kind of people we are and the people we meet.

    (And yet reading of the need to create such inner sight, of hearing of this impulse to full initiation as a true call, to that level of spiritual achievement, where such things take on meaning and relevance, for a true anthroposophical development: all this is often met in our souls with incredulity, with doubt that any such experience may indeed be the case specifically for us).

    Until that is, like Steiner did, we do start to encourage each other to indeed work toward such a perspective: that initiation is possible for us, now, in this life, and that this is indeed what Steiner intended: that Anthroposophy should live with this impulse living in the heart.

    But we have to fight for this (or better said resolve for this); and so we have to beg to differ to the bourgeois materialist of our souls who would simply wish us to consume Anthroposophy, and say it is only for so called riper others, and for us to bewail our lack of ripeness.

    So, we have to redress our impulse for initiation, that through our own application of anthroposophical insights, to our own meditative life, and into our own lives, we can grow forthrightly, assertively, and with courage. We have to take hold of our own authority like this. And we have to feel the fire in this.

    Some call this a thunder and lightning path of initiation, because we do in fact evoke a storm of transformation into our lives. It can feel awe inspiring, as much as perilous. No-one likes getting drenched in rain; the cat in us shrinks under the sofa in terror; the mesmerist in us gets dazzled with the lightning strike.

    And yet, when we look into contemporary reality with all its digital complexity, this wish for an ability to embody new powers of spirit in our soul, is a very pressing need. We somehow know that only something drastic like this has to be set in motion for us to keep our head above water. We intuit, in longing and distress, that we and humanity need something very new.

    This very new thing does require a battle. It is a stage of the path when the battle for the soul comes, and it cannot be avoided. The battle for the leadership and loyalty of your soul. It is a confrontation largely hidden from the world, and one surely too that this world shall thoroughly condemn and no less ignores should we dare to seek to bring it forward and into life. Silence and the longing for a sign are hard tests to endure.

    On the spiritual path, many of our old predilections and character traits shall fall away. And this is a scary thing. No school or upbringing really prepares you for this. We know this so starkly through the challenges we have seen in the last years – mirroring in our own lives and karma – suffering that we see around us in the world, and others, bring us to truly need Anthroposophy. And yet it is a precondition of our times that we are thoroughly unprepared for the shattering experiences of the spiritual path.

    We have to therefore bring together three things – recognition of the spiritual, enthusiasm for anthroposophy in our lives, and in this process, we can then learn (in an apocalyptic sense) to put on new white garments.

    So, with this Anthroposophicum initiative, our goal is to learn how to create ourselves both individually and as a community, as a gift. It’s a gift because when we dedicate our time to this and really understand why this is important, it becomes a meaningful act for humanity and our future.

    In a world of artificial intelligence and large language systems, the creative human voice faces significant challenges. These forces may create a way of thinking that contrasts with what we wish to nurture and develop.

    Through Anthroposophy, rather than opposing this artificial intelligence, we see it as a vocation to intensify our souls to be able to spiritually work in and through these times, to transform them by becoming ever more aware of our creative drive for a Michaelic intelligence through our speech and language.

    It is an ages old Parzival question, but it is a good starting point to invert any negativity or feeling of despondency upon reading such things, to ask perhaps with a wider view, perhaps closer to home, dear brother or sister, what ails thee?

    Because this question really is, so too, to ask, what is it that has wounded you in your life that you have carried up until now?

    Go into that image, see it, in all its twisted ugliness of the thing you have reject and have neglected in yourself, as that thing you have turned from and find in that very thing something of beauty awaiting you. Is it pessimism, is it demotivation, is it pride or fear of others, or of the spirit itself, or is it fear of what you yourself have become?

    Whatever it is, these are times not to any more turn away from ourselves, but to go into that darkest place …

    So perhaps more pertinent now for us to ask, in these less than valiant times is – How might this deep inner wound we carry come to be our very greatest treasure?

    I mean specifically, not vaguely or misty-eyed. So this text is a call for initiative, from me, as much as it is a call from others. For it is social. It is a call for us to work to hold a torch and a beacon high. For those in need. Those who might see it and say yes, this speaks to me, I do indeed need to turn, to find the force to overcome myself, to find new truth.

    But far more poignantly, all this leads us to something that comes from collaborative work. For anthroposophical study and work together breeds a spiritual influx into life through work inspired by others.

    For study is no mere practice of utility. It is rather for us to ask, what is my very vulnerability, my very lost child of my soul, shaking and alone, in the cold, hiding from me, and holding for me for a time when I am ready?

    My argument here is that this time for many is here, that we can advocate for spiritual attainment like this to others, to ourselves, like a spirit remembrance, of why we are here, and that we can truly undertake spiritual initiation when we remind each other of just what is possible.

    So this is what we mean when we say recognition, resonance and gift. We mean all three activities are set in motion through social interaction.

    In my eyes, this is to state something of the chalice nature of community work, that the individual is inextricably linked to others, and that as much as meditative practice, the moral purpose of collaborative spiritual work and spiritual attainment has to be a warm rejuvenation of all that once was dead.

    Richard Cooper

  • Anthroposophical Etheric Force

    Anthroposophical Etheric Force

    To understand the etheric world and what the Return of Christ there means, you have to experience it. Then, all the truths of the gospels light up, because they become relevant because you yourself live them. Many of us do experience this. It just needs a few tweaks in our daily etheric perception, to see deep esoteric mysteries at play in our lives.

    This is different to a Luciferic Christ of personal rapture, or an Ahrimanic fake Christ. Of thinking you can either explain everything with your own personal font of visionary hallucinations. Rather, it requires something more humble to grow in this mystery. It requires human sympathy.

    Where a “tweak” of perception we might call moral dexterity:

    Sympathy is not condescending pity, or patronising dismissal; it’s more like empathy, but more detailed, more nuanced, with a view to positive experience of spiritual unfolding, for and with an other.

    It doesn’t have to be super pathetic or like an oppressive attitude. It can simply be like saying:

    “I want to learn, I want to share, I want to grow”. As a human being in divine presence. I want to explore that. “Me” is not so high on my list of priorities, but rather what “you” said. Something like that.

    It is like learning super gentleness and much more differentiated playfulness in the schooling of speech. In the lion’s or shark’s pit of modern life, normally only the arts of war are the required norms and customs in our society.

    Speaking in a spiritual study group, can be different. It is an opportunity to listen and heal: Like taking out a thorn in a paw. We’ve all got one. But this requires practice and patience and social engagement.

    So what is antipathy really?

    Simply throwing stones and scared glances at others, projecting our soul life, from afar, at things other’s are doing, but not for us ?

    Well, of course, there are resistant powers to Christ, with different coordinates now, for present realities. The Good needs its challenge from Evil to be itself. We have therefore a magnetic interplay.

    The etheric is connected down into our bodies and the challenges we meet in life, through others, through karma, we are magnetised.

    Navigating Karma: Because the duality of material life creates a magnetic tension, we have to enable in ourselves a need for a higher synthesis.

    So, any time you connect to the divine, you start to live these mysteries.

    You begin to bring truth and the spirit down into life through deeds, and the etheric forms and grows.

    Yet, even in the sharing of words of the spirit, the opposite pole is activated.

    – People trust you not, people get scared, people judge you, people turn away and denounce you –

    But learning strong “yesses” and “nos” is a good thing. It is a part of building etheric life and character. (In eurythmy we see it well. For in the gesture of giving we slightly bow, and in rejecting, we find posture and uprightness).

    This is part of the etheric magnetic mystery that learns to grow in spite of antipathy. We need good boundaries. Only so can people shape themselves. This has to be so, this has to happen so, for us to feel our I. To have an I in the body. Because you take on the social direction and shapes, also of the karma of others. So the key is learning all three sympathy, antipathy and empathy: and to learn to see through them.

    Spiritual Boundaries: You spiritually grow by starting to explore this.

    Persecution and human refusal, human resistance and spiritual resistance to you and your life is less as a demoralising signpost, or waymarker of failure. But more as an honour. Then one must really reassess, rethink, restrategise. To understand the dynamics of karma in the world because even one “off” thought shall have consequences.

    How on earth to manage such new perceptions, and spiritual perspective?

    Human interrelation and interdependence becomes vital. It becomes a matter of the growth of life spirit. Or on the contrary, something detrimental to it, where instead we’d have a “slack” unformed etheric. This too shapes life, even down into its effect on physical health.

    Let us draw in another truth. We are not separate, enclosed, as the body is in incarnate life. We are interpenetrated. This means remote influence is a very real occult phenomenon. (Very oppositely inclined people can work through even the slightest inclination of the soul. They can steer the life of another. We are only beginning to wake up to this far-reaching reality).

    Thinking such things as satanism is hocus pocus does not mean it does not affect actual life. So any time you do the good deed, you are connected to the divine (It lives through all those working in the world in that direction), and any evil deed links you to people working otherwise, in the alternate direction. This sounds very basic but it is also very complex.

    Until full initiation these dynamics plays out in life unconsciously.

    Magnetically there is interest, there has to be resistance to the good: based on divine, spiritual law. Antipathy has to be reflected upon to see this, as much as ideal sympathy. We ourselves, with others, are deciding the paths of each other’s karma. This has to be so because of Christ.

    The Christ mystery is the only work of “us”. It is collective only to the extent we can work as free individuals. But to be free is a social experience, and so too, it is an artistic one.

    Antipathy, we ask, what does it show us of our stuckness?

    What of the affect or disaffect of others’ spiritual state of mind and soul on us?

    A Karmic Network … is like a locus of coordinates, to navigate a path of Initiation, through karma. It shows this in the dynamics of seeming private inner thought and feeling. And yet the spiritual sees you. You give to the world, and in the giving, you learn, and your karma, your life path, changes. Unravellable knots are there to be cut by swords of destiny. But, and this is the optimum word, only through awareness of divine law.

    Hypnosis : We have been brought up to take easy paths in life and to avoid suffering. But this is due to a personal and collective cultural hypnosis.

    Awakening to the Etheric : Anyone who has truly cared for the growth of anything in life knows this truth. Whether a little plant, or a profession, care, creation, and productivity in life needs exactness. It needs willingness to physically exert oneself and strict attention to detail. And on top of all that true social interaction. For we don’t progress on our own in any field of life.

    Growth, and by implication, spiritual initiation, comes from giving, and showing up again and again, to renew and refine our character.

    Upcoming Study Groups:

    I’ll be setting up some study groups in these upcoming times. Anyone can join who feels this call of sympathy, of positivity, for these truths.

    Group work like this is not having a lead figure explain the world to you. But instead that each participant shares. In the sharing, we discover a higher truth that the spirit speaks through all. Of course, we present. But a new kind of engagement with others, less oriented to vanity, is subtle but powerful. Each of us is a source of higher truth. Spiritual truth can live in the question as much as the exposition of an answer. The mystery of Michael has to be this kind of community. The development of one is linked to the development of all. This we should learn from the social aesthetics of Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas. To help one another toward the benefit of a work, of an activity for wider humanity. This is the only means of creating a chalice for the spirit, for otherwise we are simply egoists.

    Such spiritual development can provoke the incredible ire of others. I see that simply as a sign of natural force. To recognise, to consolidate and move forward.

    If you feel called to work like this, then get in touch.

    These basic-grounding principles of anthroposophy as outlined here, are in fact rather advanced mysteries. For some of us called to anthroposophy in this life, these mysteries are necessities of life which need sharing, literally to sustain life. They are a higher responsibility.

    Responding to Materialism: One of the deepest mysteries for us to resolve is the antipathy of man to his fellow man. Woman to her fellow man and woman. Christ on the cross is the work of a group of male and female initiates around him. They take part in a new, not unfathomable, but vast mystery. To bring new insight to all matters of life. This is in contradistinction to AI, transgendering and electromagnetic control.

    We are in need of and on the verge of, deeper mysteries of the human body. The atom in a true Esoteric Christian sense. This is a work we do in social life toward an understanding of the new Phantom, Resurrection Body.

    If we don’t take up these studies, the gap, the vacancy will be filled with something else.

    Lining up for late summer, 2025: these groups will be paid and link up to study, writing and video.

    Richard Cooper