Thinking and the Harrowing of Hell

Submitted by Tim Bourke on Thu, 11/01/2007 - 9:01pm.
Through reading PoF, through studying anthroposophy and through many other paths we can experience a death and resurrection in our thinking, so that we can begin to experience not I but Christ in me in our thinking.

 

 

What is released by the resurrection of thought? 

Through reading PoF, through studying anthroposophy and through many other paths we can experience a death and resurrection in our thinking, so that we can begin to experience not I but Christ in me in our thinking.

What could it mean, that Christ thinks in me in this activity of living thinking?  Rudolf Steiner has spoken of the activity of reading PoF as one way of beginning to purify our astral body or what we might call roughly our inner soul life.  Our relationship to our inner life, to our feelings begins to change.

Does this mean that all of a sudden I am perfect, that I can do no wrong?  Unfortunately the answer is no - we still retain all our frailties and failings as well as all of our abilities and almost infinite potential for development into the future.  But our relationship to them changes.

One way of picturing this is by recalling the Christian tradition of Christ's "Harrowing of Hell" - where Christ is supposed to have descended into Limbo and Hell, into the depths of the earth to set the souls free who up until that time had been imprisoned by the powers of evil.  In the process the powers of evil were also disturbed, "stirred up" so to speak so that their activity on the earth actually increased.

So on the one hand all of a sudden I see that there is a path of development I can follow into the future which has no end, which will develop my powers of thinking, feeling and willing in harmony with cosmic powers to one day make of me a truly free human being.  We can think of the human souls who died before the Mystery of Golgotha being set free, for example, as in this image.

On the other hand my own imperfections become much more real to me and begin to present themselves to me in a more objective form through imagination - forces which must be confronted and overcome if I am to follow this new path of development into the future.

Sometimes Christianity's relationship to Christ's passion is very one-sided because it is viewed as being all over and done with - Christ died once for all and ascended and waits for his "chosen".  But Christ is active every day, every moment within us.  This is part of the "passion" and mystery of our thinking.

 

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Consequences of freeing thinking, feeling and will

Tim, beautifully put. As I read what you wrote I saw the crucifixion in a different light. The three crosses on Golgotha can represent our crucified thinking (Christ), feeling (Lucifer) and will (Ahriman).  Note that Lucifer was redeemed, Ahriman was not. When we get to the point of I-connection so that the Christ Impulse is active in us, these three; thinking, feeling and will operate individually in us and we must combine them - if we don't we will have mental problems. So only when we allow Christ to be the fulcrum in our being will be experience the freedom he 'died' for. 

Hi Tim

The first thing I think about when I read this is how, in Chapter Six of PoF, Steiner leads us step by step to an understanding of one aspect of how this living thinking might be developed. As I review the chapter I have what you've written here in the back of my mind.

Thanks!
Lori