I have written a great deal about the need to move to release and heal ourselves from the wounds that bind us all to a culture, and to paradigms based upon principles of domination and subordination. Some of the roots of these wounds can be thought about as a twisting of the desire to know the mystery of life, and an inversion of this beautiful natural impulse. In his powerful little book, The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm speaks to this misunderstanding by peering through the eyes of a child.
When a young child beholds a delicate insect- there is a deep desire to understand its true nature. In pursuit of this understanding, it could be natural for some children to take the insect and pull it apart - limb by limb - in order to attempt to know this mystery.
But in truth, Fromm says that we are not capable of understanding mystery in this way, and through this misguided methodology, the life of the insect is taken. We destroy life, and the great mystery vanishes along with it.
Those who follow this path embody this misunderstanding. This is truly the path of self deception, illusion, and delusion, unknowingly subverting the movement of life. Through this act, one aligns with the forces of death.
The path of life grants life, refusing to force its will upon another sentient being. The child who follows this path holds the delicate insect in an open palm, allowing it to fly off when its ready. This small but powerful act releases the insect to its own will and fate, aligning with its profound beauty, mystery, and the forces of life.
This incredible metaphor told by Fromm brings to my mind the mythology of Lucifer. Lucifer, fallen angel, who ascended the spiral staircase of consciousness to bathe his being in the light of the divine, only to fall into to the depths of the underworld through denial of his own luminosity. In this way, we understand that Lucifer was a keeper of incredible wisdom and sacred knowledge, though this wisdom was inverted through his misunderstanding, and through the experience of the fall. As a result, this wisdom could be easily co-opted for ulterior motives.
It is in the simple desire to capture the essence of life, to know it’s mystery through domination, that great acts of evil are performed on a daily basis.
I believe those who align with such forces are often unaware that this is actually what they are aligning with. We see this play out again and again through time and history. And, we bear witness to this right now, where mass swaths of human beings believe control is the single answer, that domination of nature and humanity is the only and best course of action - because we are being told so. Pulling apart mystery, limb by limb, this consciousness remains blind to the incredible damage being done. There does come a time when the unaware and complicit become culpable.
There is a second kind of evil spoken about, which must also be considered more fully now. Rudolf Steiner speaks about this evil very explicitly, and has a name for this force: Ahriman.
The Ahrimanic force is a force very different than the Luciferian, in the Anthroposophical perspective. This force is a force of pure evil. This force is singularly about control. It is psychopathic, mechanical, devoid of creativity, a parasitic entity of gigantic proportion. This force is Wetiko. This force takes pleasure and gains power in the movement of technology engulfing humanity, and is devoid of all empathy and compassion. This is the force of artificial life and the very absence of the human soul. This is the force of soul-less beings. Steiner was very clear about this.
There are many highly enlightened human souls who have spoken to such beings and forces throughout time, including more recently Rudolf Steiner, G.I. Gurdgieff, and Sri Aurobindo. Whether you believe in these forces quite literally, or more archetypally and qualitatively, we can clearly observe the use of technology as a pure mechanism of complete and psychopathic domination. This reality reflects a combination of both of these forces at work - the Luciferian and the Ahrimanic. The synthesis of these qualities creates a matrix based upon principles of psychotic domination, forged out of delusion and illusion. The illusions and delusions of the Luciferian impulse assists in the creation of a great Evil. We can observe these forces both externally, as well as internally.
These principles stand in absolute and direct opposition to principles of life, nature, and of the human soul.
The medicine, the remedy, the antidote to this insanity can be found only in principles that are sourced from paradigms of nature and life. We know these principles by their qualities and by their nature. These forces cultivate harmony, love, beauty, life, synchronicity, and the great mystery. These principles serve only cyclical and life giving movement, allowing for the existence of multiple and even paradoxical realities, while honoring all sentient beings and all living paths.
This is the light of the force that allows the insect to fly free from the palm of the hand, and to meet, in its own terms, its fleeting life and destiny. This creative and sacred force is a direct repellent to the forces of the machine, the forces of control, the forces of Wetiko, and the forces of death.
As we move into an era where the powers that be clearly state that the solutions to all of our worldly dilemmas lie only in their greater measures of control, surveillance, technology, “science”, and even the mergence of man and machine, a discerning human soul will think twice about this strange and dark proposal.
The great mystery will never be forgotten.