The dark shadowy spectre in the cosmos – Outlook for 2021 part 5

Originally posted in German on 1st January 2021

The dark figure, which is metaphysically visible in the cosmos like a shielding canopy, is not just an abstraction, not simply like a theoretical, symbolic image, it is an astral reality that possesses power in itself. In Sanskrit this figure is called asura and with the negating “a” at the beginning it means “not corresponding to the sun”. In older times the being of asura was a very neutral entity, which, nevertheless, has a great inherent power.

In 2021, many people who make good but not quite sufficient endeavours for a progressive pursuit of truth will be driven into situations of extreme emergency. They endure the stresses of pressure, literal duress, experience states of weakness and finally are subject to a weakness in the ability to build thoughts that leads to all sorts of doubts. If their resolve is not solid and absolute from the very beginning, the zeitgeist will take hold, in other words the suggestion and the stresses from fear. The suggestion of the time will overwhelm many spiritually aspiring and truth-seeking people through the influences of the asura. Outwardly visible scenes of persecution towards thinking people are literally played out in humanity. The fact that this persecution of thinking people, or of people who only dare to take a small step towards thinking, can occur, is caused by the release of power from the asura, the being that has actually formed in the cosmos. It will give great strength to those who have in them sadistic tendencies and want to slander others as if in an ambitious sport. They will demonstrate rhetoric that is fascinating and yet conveys pure projection.

How does it happen that those who have made good and yet not entirely sufficient efforts are veritably overthrown? The following occurs: the shadow figure is constantly sending out its unseen forces. It works like a secret, invisible, radiating satellite. The really existent shieldings working from the cosmos and from this figure are present, like the invisible effects from the various planets. It would not be wrong to say that this shadow figure or this darkened shielding in the cosmos acts like an additional planet of its own in world creation. The events for the year 2021 can only be understood by taking into account this sphere of action, which originates from sadistic and projective people, works upwards and finally radiates down again from the cosmos.

The asuric, dark and powerful figure, as mentioned, is composed of all the defamatory and exclusionary campaigns suffered by good scientists and wise people, and forms its own entity of power. It is like a great being that is also known in esoteric schools, such as the Rosicrucian School, and is called an elemental. It has become a cosmic elemental. Those who are taking a spiritual path and who now have doubts or who’s souls become submerged in quandaries and fears, because they are experiencing an essential threshold, slide very easily into the tentacles of this quietly acting darkness of the cosmos. Outwardly, they may experience relationship difficulties or existential problems. This external life with all its uncomfortable and conflicting demands gives them cause for fear. Under the stress of everyday life, they forget their focus towards ideals and omit clear steps of observation and their work towards the emerging goal. In the plight of earthly afflictions, they suddenly experience an encompassing being within themselves, as if strange maternal arms protectively calm them. But it is the wolf that offers its paw; only it is not recognized as a wolf in the darkness of the actual situation. A single moment of carelessness and self-surrender occurs. Goals and the planned idea for the future are lost. Those striving in this way notice that suddenly as the wolf’s maternal paw reaches over, the fears diminish and this state feels as if the pressurising thumbscrews of everyday life are lifting. Those who now connect with this being of seemingly beautiful easing, quickly feel relieved and develop a kind of pseudo-bliss. They feel as if freed from tension. At the same time they notice how they feel alien to their previous past and they no longer want to strive for truth and seek justice in the way they did before. In the state into which they now enter, they bow out of the tension-laden reality of pursuing truth. They enter into a shell with the obscene, radiating elemental or with the asura.

With this unseen and yet highly effective astral connection, which works almost like a kind of drug, the events in the world slip past people without them feeling anything. Apathy instead of empathy directs the moods of their souls. They suddenly feel protected as they dive into a kind of unaffectedness and an insensitive world, but do not notice that they have given up their pursuit of truth and greater freedom. With this retreat into a completely enveloped state of surrendered self, these people gain an extraordinary power of apparent equanimity, which, however, is a kind of splitting off from reality. Energy flows to them, while other people who are less enveloped and strive for truth must give away their energy.

The development of this misappropriation on the part of former spiritual seekers or people searching for truth, to the point at which an actual shell even forms, should not remain unconsidered for the forecast of the year 2021. These people, who have received a lot spiritually, ought now to be radiating great forces outwardly. But they withdraw from spirituality for the sake of recognition from the world.¹⁾Spirituality attains essential importance from the moment individuals come to a threshold on their path. This threshold was portrayed, for example, in the Bhagavad Gita. The figure of Arjuna on the battlefield signals despair in a worldly exposed position. The story tells in the course of many verses how Arjuna finally steps beyond the boundaries of his personal feeling-attachments and finds a life task in the sense of spirituality. The step beyond the threshold from an earthly into a spiritually greater truth through training would be meaningful for many people today, but is very seldom realised. What a big difference it would make if five hundred people, distributed worldwide, were to follow their goals every day, independently directed, in an active pursuit of higher truths and spirituality, and cross the thresholds of subjectivity to objective investigation of truth.²⁾Five hundred is a rough figure. It does not refer to ordinary people, but to so-called initiates, who have already obtained spiritual insights of high caliber and do not make these available to the world in a suitable manner, but rather withdraw in a more mystical way or succumb to compensations and fail to adopt the real responsibility, which they ought to have by virtue of their knowledge. Precisely spirituality as a force is being lost to the world and people making other sorts of effort lack this force which they would otherwise unconsciously receive from spirituality. As a result they also fail in the world. This statement is to be understood as applying to people like Bodo Schiffmann or Professor Bhakdi, who are very good at illuminating things, and describe the situation, but are not heard because the unseen, deep background of the spiritual capacity within humanity is missing. It is not made available by the spiritually initiated. They could create an astonishing world equilibrium and prevent poor people from becoming poorer and rich people from continuing to exploit others, and accrue wealth through abuse. They could also boost the level of health and be a blessing for the slipping world equilibrium in third world countries. Unfortunately, however, the prognosis for 2021 is not very good, as many who have received a great deal are passively giving up in the face of the current conditions.

The cosmic asuric shadow figure imparts extremely high energies, especially to those who are destructive. It demands the price of a kind of self-surrender. Those who surrender to it must no longer really look thoughtfully at the truths of spirituality, the real principles of health, and questions of moral and aesthetic development. However, if individuals endeavour to gain a profound understanding of the physical, soul and spiritual realities – and that will unfortunately be only very few people – they will feel a kind of homelessness in their souls. These individuals will experience feelings, as if they are standing alone on a mountain peak and are never again able to return to the valley. The courage to take these paths alone only remains possible for very few.

The year 2021 will bring forth a great many sudden and unexpected events. These cannot be precisely defined at the moment. They could reveal themselves in very hostile and violent power games, but they could also suddenly reveal themselves with respect to vaccinations, progressing in the most peculiar ways and dictatorially overturning rights. In any case, experiences of shock are planned that will be forced upon people as a kind of way out of adversity. Politicians themselves know that they cannot provide leadership and that is why the measures suddenly become irrational in order to save the current situation and will always be of a violent nature.

However, the view should be directed more towards individual people and their inner experiencing and developing. Alongside individual people who are standing on a sharp ethical moral edge of their existence, a large part of humanity today is also experiencing a transition across a certain threshold, at which many unfortunately turn back to this supposed, passive  security in the withdrawal of their self, or others, when they find courage, raise themselves up to a truly dynamic and steadfast spiritual presence.³⁾This explanation concerns a christian-spiritual understanding that exists generally in humanity. It is not outwardly committing to a religion that is important, but the deepest desire for specific truths and the sustaining of truly independently achieved knowledge until this can manifest itself in the world. Groups provide absolutely no support for the success of spirituality; only the individual can manage to cross a threshold. The dimension that Buddhism formerly associated with presence, which is now incorrectly equated with mindfulness exercises, which mostly represent a subjective dwelling within personal limits, requires from people everyday a high level of activity oriented towards concentration. The price that the individuals have to pay for development is to say goodbye to all comfort and to all desirous compulsions of the body and to lead a thought into the really envisioned aim.

There will, though, be some people who will achieve this kind of presence in the strength of their thinking and of their whole soul and these will pass over definitively into the cultural spirit of the future. They will embody a kind of christian-spiritual principle in an individual way. The year 2021 will bring forth a few artists and spiritual people with a great spiritual strength and a love of truth. Through exclusion they will grow into a polarity-free dimension of thinking, they will often be quite distinctive and yet perceive themselves inwardly within the spiritual legacy of the most hidden, christian values. They will know of each other even though they are geographically distant and do not cultivate long phone calls.

How could a new culture with a sustainable character come into being?

From a pralaya, from a dissolution, right away in the same moment, a prabhava, an emergence of a new dimension, cannot happen. The existence of a peaceful, ecological, aesthetic, human-moral and liberal culture must first be thought of as an idea, through very far-reaching and persevering thinking, and finally brought to an ideal in feeling and willing, so that it can actually enter the world.

The negative could be the best impetus for this cultural force, because when human consciousness finds itself in nothingness, figuratively as if in the rubble of fallen states, churches and villages, it needs great fantasy of thought, as a moral and regulating self-authority to further this growing development in an ideal way. Germany would have this potential, but in 2021 Germany in particular will be most subject to forces of alienation. This first spiritual seed will only be able to flourish in smaller beginnings and specifically chosen locations.

Actually, the most diverse professional groups have the best starting points for building a conscience and attaining a christian-spiritual⁴⁾The term christian-spiritual is closely related to Rudolf Steiner. Quite the opposite of a religious denomination, the christian-spiritual carries itself into life through the courageous and wisdom filled I-self. Real christians are always to some degree outsiders in the world. Today they are no longer the typical martyrs who go to their death, but rather who have been ostracized and through this have taken up a kind of independent yet very profound view of the world. Indeed, people can only be free if they no longer strive for recognition in the world. The christian-spiritual human being can only be defined by complete freedom. consciousness, which can in fact develop precisely when the most extreme polarities collide with each other. Within their profession, they could do far more to establish the viable morality which ideally characterises the honour of their work. That is why doctors, who want to promote human health as the top priority, should in no way submit to politics, but rather establish their specialist knowledge in a growing conscience and demonstrate the value of their work according to their personal feeling. They shouldn’t allow themselves to be degraded to homo mechanicus. They ought to individualise themselves out of a complete understanding of their professional honour, to elevate themselves to give the healing arts a presence, and this is always connected with an individual, authentic commitment. The Christian in the unattached martyr-self, the I, could now be resurrected in doctors who do not make themselves dependent on external recognition on the part of politics, economics or collective expectation. Now people could find their authority with their conscience, and being oriented or aligned to a system would not play a role.

Judges, prosecutors and lawyers could recognise justice as the highest law and would never bend it according to the demands of the political zeitgeist. For this they would have to step in personally and raise their highest possible moral conscience.

Spiritually oriented people could completely leave behind their ego in the present time without asceticism and self-denial, or lengthy self-analysis, because every day they could have ideas rich in content that they shape fully into ideals, and that inspire future vision. The question of personal energies would be superfluous because the self could come into the world in a complete act of love. As a result of the many failings, trivialisations and the so very wide spread clinging to petty accolades for the world, it is precisely people with a spiritual orientation who have neglected their task and only foster their personal energies. The prognosis for 2021 turns out to be so bad precisely because over the years there has not been a real building up of solid spiritual achievements.

If journalists were to notice how they have all too often become the blind tools of the time machine, they could raise their conscience and establish a moral element in reporting. But the few who strive to provide correct information in the field of journalism are being ousted by the powers of manipulation. They urgently need the support of spirituality. If the connection of spirituality to different areas of expertise were to develop generally, then a growing moral strengthening would be possible. The view of the spiritual worlds, if it is adequately fostered with insights, gives the soul precisely that primordial force⁵⁾The term primordial force cannot be traced back to a force that comes from the body. It is more the ability of people to move with complete decisiveness and uprightness towards a morally high goal. People like Gandhi, Nelson Mandela or even some freedom fighters in dictatorial times had great primordial force. with which it gains the courage to raise the conscience.

As Rudolf Steiner has already said, the church ought to declare itself superfluous, because by playing out its power in hidden economic ways, it can only contribute to depression and other false forms of belief. Unfortunately, even in 2021, the church structures will continue to manifest only in more cunning commercial channels.

All individuals who raise themselves to real morality can provide equilibrium in the world even if their careers have been suspended. But if people, and unfortunately this will represent the majority, neglect to dedicate themselves to forming a deeper conscience and to raising a moral attitude, then the upper and lower worlds, that is, the spiritual hierarchies and humanity, fall into an even more noticeable division. This shows itself already in the impoverishment of feeling in individual dispositions. But this is also visible in the relationship difficulties with one another. An obvious example of how people lose all spiritual connection to the higher hierarchies will manifest itself in 2021 in the fact that they will stage the greatest absurdities and performances which, had they been witnessed 20 years ago, would have been seen as theatrical. One will question, for example, whether people who appear in public are charicaturing irony or whether they actually seriously mean what they say. In any case, absurdities will be staged without any sense of honour towards oneself or any honour towards those who denounce them.

The often exhausted individual would love to follow a guru, a leader or a new religious movement. These ideas will also not succeed in 2021 and it is good that they do not succeed, because the christian-spiritual potential in people will be challenged and that means that even in the rubble of all the passing incidents, they must raise their thoughts to the highest visions and finally give these thoughts a concrete result. This process will be unreliable and it will show repeated failures. However, people must not isolate themselves, but rather they must remain in connection with their contemporaries. The task of building and realising is an obligation of each individual person in total independent responsibility. This responsibility of the self and maturing of the self is wanted by the spiritual hierarchies. Anyone who takes the courage to do this and does not lose themselves in egocentric one-sidedness, but remains in relationship with spiritual and good scientific sources, will notice that they can cope with the year with reasonably good strength. They will feel themselves to be at the front and, precisely through standing at the front, they will create new life forces.⁶⁾The fact that that through a direct relationship to a goal oriented task people can forget themselves and through contact with very motivating thoughts create new, so-called, “etheric forces”, is evident even in simple disciplines such as mountain climbing. A good mental focus and the courage to be the lead climber releases far greater forces than merely being passively attached as the following climber. Further examples are: a teacher who really wants to teach something is often less exhausted than the students who only want to take up learning material in a passive expectation, or a flower that grows in a sunlit meadow thrives more easily because it is in contact with direct sunlight, while in hidden areas, in shady forests it cannot grow.