Gospel Reading: Revelations 7: 9-17

Dear Community of Christians,

The lake close to us sometimes has a surface which is smooth like a mirror, and if the weather shows its best side with a blue sky and clear sunlight, the sky is reflected perfectly in the lake. The water becomes almost blue. On the other side, the fine mist rises continuously upwards and slowly changes the atmosphere. Can we say here as above so below and vice versa?

But there is also a reflection from the inside to the outside and vice versa, especially when we look at human beings. 

Sometimes one can say of another person that he, or she has eyes like shining stars. Something is reflected from the inside and becomes visible. 

Certain stellar forces determine our lives from the moment we are born until we die. The effects of these forces always determine our feelings and sensations, mostly unconsciously. Since these unconscious forces often interact with unconscious forces that we bring with us from former lives, this can cause much suffering in our personal lives. We all know people who are weight down by suffering, and very often this suffering is also reflected in a person’s face. The suffering and pain will certainly then be received by the the spiritual world. 

Admittedly, we are conscious and clear-thinking people of today and so we can become aware the effects of these star forces.  What has been achieved will also become visible, will shine outwardly.  And in the opposite direction human prayer and the spiritual thinking will flow upwards.

The suffering, the pain, but also the inner spiritual activity will one day come to an end.

What has been mirrored through the development of humanity will be perceived as those who ” have washed their garments and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they stand before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in his temple.” 

​This image of the robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb will be what is reflected from the bottom up through all that we continually wrestle in order to bring human development closer to its purpose.

Gospel Reading: ​Revelations 19: 11-16

“It is he who makes faith and knowledge true”.*
​So we hear from the Revelation of John. Are faith and knowledge opposites?

Dear Community of Christians,

For our time of scientific thinking, these two forces, faith and knowledge, are seemingly opposites.

Let’s take children for example. For them Christmas, Easter, and even the being of Michael are living realities. Of course they know the Christ Child comes to them at Christmas. And of course they feel the Easter Bunny is a reality that engenders an attitude of devotion.

What adult would want to deprive a child of this soul-warming faith? There is nothing more beautiful than listening to children looking forward to Christmas and the Christ child’s birth. The underlying atmosphere is a harmonious sense of anticipation and wonder.

The adult point of view only appears to be a contradictory one. Yes, the birth of Christ took place on earth, and in the innermost place of the soul. The God of man dedicated himself with the death on the cross.

Our adult cognition, in contrast to that of a child, is based on an expanded knowledge, and is rooted in sources that are incomprehensible to children.

Does this drifting apart of faith and knowledge have to do with the development of our adult consciousness? The next sentence in Revelations says: “Morality arises through his decisions and his battles”.

The battle between our scientific thinking, and our deeper understanding of world evolution and development takes place inside of us. It is about the relationship to our innermost being, our ‘I am’. By thinking about the truth that man and the world are permeated by spiritual forces, by spiritual entities, and if we allow this thought, trying to understand it through our enlivened and active thinking, then knowledge and faith are no longer opposites. The ‘I am’ can then come as far as the truth insofar as it has experienced it for itself. Then we can approach the kingdom of heaven with both faith and knowledge.

“Whoever does not take the kingdom of God into himself as a child and has it within him, he will never find the way into it”

Gospel Reading: Revelation 12: 1-18

Dear Community of Christians

Are battles in heaven archetypal pictures for battles of rival parties on the earth? In the past, such battles in heaven, as we have heard, did not take place with the same drama that is described in Revelation today. What then has changed in heaven and/ or on earth? 

On earth national identities, ethnic groups or simply different groupings have always fought with each other. Power and possession were the decisive factors, but the conflicts, as relentless as they were, in the end still retained human qualities until 200 years ago. We might assume there was still an interaction between heaven and earth.
Meanwhile, worldwide wars on earth have lost their human-ness; today they are wars to exterminate human qualities.

Has that changed in the heavens too? What we can hear from the Apocalypse is that there are spiritual powers that want to completely subjugate the human race. The Human quality of developing freedom towards becoming a spiritual being, does not have a place in the dragon’s plan. 

We can try to look at this reality from two different directions.

Firstly, the forces of the dragon have been given the space from the divine world not only to be present in heaven, but also to work on earth. Without the work of the dark forces on earth, human beings would never learn to decide on one side or the other out of their own ego. 

But by giving humanity the freedom to decide independently, the outcome of the struggle is still open. 

The other side has to do with the imperfect development of humanity. It is still not possible for the ‘I am’ to distinguish between those powers that seduce the soul, and the Christ-power that lives in the innermost core of the human being. The effects of our weaknesses are still carried by heaven. 

But heaven also has to ensure, that one day, the battle is conclusively decided.
And so, the dragon has been cast out of the heavens and dwells now on earth. Now it is on us to bring the struggle to a conclusion.

And “he stormed away to fight against those who remained of the woman’s offspring. That is those who keep to the divine world-aims and who are united with the destiny and witnessing of Jesus”  

When this goal fills our consciousness, we can be free from worry about how the struggle on earth will turn out.

Dear Community of Christians,

I remember the autumn months in Canada when the world, even in the city, turned into a sea of color. The Indian summer made its way into the world and the trees were colored in red, yellow and orange. This triggered an indescribable excitement in me about the beauty of the world. This experience also brought up many different thoughts. The sensation, this beauty is not a purely natural process. Elemental beings, even hierarchical beings are also involved in it. This encounter brings up deep gratitude to be able to experience this event again and again over the years.

This also includes the purely scientific questions. What kind of soil culture is needed, what kind of weather conditions are required, what kind of internal process takes place in the trees themselves?

​For me, the Indian Summer experience was a true Michaelic feast. Enthusiasm flows from the heart and with the powers of the heart the human being begins to think. Is that what we are need today? The capacity for enthusiasm? In these socially difficult times, it is not easy to find events to get excited about. To consciously seek this, to strive for it, is Michaelic power that can be found in the heart so that we develop towards heart thinking and become real servants of Michael.