Inside-Out Thinking

The Anti-Christ Again

Last year Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, retired archbishop of Bologna and formerly a candidate for elevation to the throne of St Peter, warned that the Anti-Christ is already among us. He said that the Anti-Christ presents himself as a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist. He talked of the Anti-Christ reducing Christianity to a set of values, and trying to take away the element of personal, spiritual experience.

I don't know about the 'green' element or whether he is already walking the earth, but there is nothing inconsistent with what i do know in reports I've read of what of what the Cardinal said, and it fits in with ideas of the Anti-Christ 'explaining away' the supernatural by means of science. As the incarnation of great spirit of materialism, it will also be his aim to squeeze out genuine spiritual experience.

I'm interested that the Cardinal seemed to take the Russian writer Soloviev - alluded to in my book - as authoritative on this matter.

I think it's also significant that the Cardinal made this statement after a period of spiritual exercises - and so an altered state of consciousness. As a young man Pope John Paul II had made spiritual exercises devised by Rudolf Steiner. I intend nothing but good by saying that, and I'm certain that nothing but good came of it.

Consider, too, the present Pope's book discussed in an earlier post. The leaders of the Church are steeped in esoteric thought.

Idealism and Religious Imagery

All the great imagery of our religions was formed in eras when everyone believed without question in idealism – that mind came before matter, that matter was precipitated from mind, that matter was made for mind, that the material universe is made for humankind, that human spirits descended into this material universe, that this material universe, controlled by the great comic mind, nurtures us, that one day matter will dissolve and we will return to to great cosmic mind.

These images couldn't be more familiar, but maybe we tend not to appreciate them because we come to them with a non-idealist – indeed materialistic mind-set.

This all religions have near their centre the image of mother nurturing the child. This the clearest possible image of the 'anthropic' universe – the material universe made to nurture us.

All religions have the image of the cross. This is the image of matter, having been emanated from mind and finally become fixed in the solid, foursquare we know today.

Jesus Christ, then is pinned to the Cross so that he can begin the process of spiritualizing it, dematerializing it. In Christian idealism this event is right at the centre of history.

These are simple things we tend to miss, but obvious when you think abut it.

I think Christianity has to re-embrace idealism, by the way – or it is nowhere. Modern liberal theologians are the nicest, most well-meaning people in the world, but if you compromise with materialistic philosophy you soon find yourself with nothing left to defend.

Sorry, one of my hobby horses.

The Two Faces of Fundamentalism

Jesus said 'When the Son of Man comes will he find Faith on Earth?'

I saw this used as sort of slogan on the side of a London bus this morning.

You see, the thing is I suspect that the JesusOrg (or similar that paid for this poster, I only got a glimpse and can't be sure of the name) is expecting a 'no' in answer to this question. A fire and brimstone serve-them-right no.

The esoteric interpretation looks to the answer 'yes'. The Son of Man is - on one level  - our Higher Self which is trying to draw attention to deeper patterns to be found in our lives and in human history. In company with Kierkegaard, who was much influenced by esoteric thinking, we accept that life looks pretty absurd a lot of the time, but have seen enough, experienced enough to trust that the real, religious meaning behind everything will eventually be discovered.

Until then life resists simple, fixed dogma. It is paradoxical and absurd and subversive of dogma. Life is a mystery. That is why fundamentalism, whether in Christianity or the fundamentalism of atheists of the school of Dawkins, is a completely inappropriate response. Both belief and disbelief should be suspended.

Be content to not know.

It's not the most rousing slogan, I know, but there it is.

What do Church Leaders Really Believe?

It sometimes seems to be the case that some Church leaders - we might call the them the Magisterium, after Pullman - seek to impose on their flock a narrow interpretation of Christianity that excludes, for example, astrology, occult physiology - the chakras, the Third Eye etc - and seeking experience of many different types of disembodied intelligence.

While researching my history I saw a lot evidence that Jesus Christ and senior Christians ever since Jesus Christ have been followers of secret teachings. A Jesuit called Athanasius Kircher, for example, seemed to have an amazing number of connections with the leading esoteric researchers of his day. The last Pope was trained in techniques designed to induce experience of disembodied intelligences by an Anthroposophist. (If the Magisterium is tuning in, I mean no disrespect by this. Anthroposophy is Christocentric and i'd recommend these techniques to anyone.)

There is a book not available in all good bookshops called The Message of Fatima. Carrying the imprimatur of the Vatican, it examines the secret of Fatima - a prophecy given to three shepherds in Portugal at the beginning of the last century but not published until the end of the century.

Many people believe that the published version has been edited and that there is an alternative version held back by Church leaders, but let us for the moment look at the published version.

As in the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, Russia is here said to play a crucial role in the future history of humankind. I wrote in my book about the extremes of good and evil already observable there. The message of Fatima suggests that if good doesn't prevail, several nations will be annihilated. Lucia, one of the three Portuguese shepherds, wrote that we must not allow the children of Darkness to be wiser than the children of Light, and the message also seems to hint at a great apostasy within the Church.  In the third and last part of the message, as it has been published, a pope, dressed in white, is assassinated by soldiers with arrows and bullets. In a later post I will ask if parallel prophecies related in the last chapter of my book help elucidate this one.

Roman Religion

Back from a trip to Rome. I visited the church of San Francisco di Rippa, hoping to see the cell where St Francis stayed - his crucifix and stone pillow. But a service for children was in progress and it didn't seem right to ask. I saw, in a surprisingly small and intimate chapel, Bernini's statue of an ecstatic Ludovica Alberti - sister statue of the more famous one of Teresa reproduced in Secret History.

It was more a religious church than an art church, if you know what I mean, a working church. I Rome it's clear that in the religion of the  people occult physiology, disembodied intelligences of a huge variety and the spiritual influence of the stars and planets are a part of collective experience. It's a as if the tide of the old, more-dream-like form of consciousness has not quite gone out yet. Rome gives a sense of Christianity's having grown out of the great religions of the ancient world, and a liberality and spiritual self-confidence, based on lived spiritual experience.

How different from the narrow compromise with materialism that the the Magisterium seeks to impose.

I am a nut

Anyone who shows interest in spirituality is called a nut these days. But there are other varieties, some of whom may wander onto this blog by mistake. I'm talking about those who believe that Freemasons secretly worship the devil.

My guess is that this stuff is put out by extremist Catholics who are saying things that their elders and betters in the Church would not want them to say.

Anyone who genuinely wants to know about Freemasonic spirituality should go to Robert Lomas's archival website. Some old the old Freemasonic documents he has unearthed have an almost biblical density of meaning, and i have been pleased to use them as sources.

Traditions regarding the Morning Star and other heavenly bodes should, i believe, be interpreted in terms of the role of the disposition of the heavenly bodies in giving our consciousness the shape it has. I am not a Freemason, but I see eye to eye on this with Robert Lomas.