The book Ahriman doesn´t want you to read

Some time ago, I promised myself to stop reading Steiner, but it doesn't seem to be working. Do I have an unhealthy karmic bond with this outrageous character, or what? ;-)

Rudolf Steiner was, of course, the founder of Anthroposophy, a new religious movement broadly derived from Theosophy. In contrast to all other religions I'm familiar with, Anthroposophy believes in two evil or negative forces in the cosmos, rather than just one. Steiner called them Lucifer and Ahriman. Of these, Ahriman seems to be closest to traditional Christian conceptions of the devil. He is depicted with horns and wings, lives in a dark cave and will be incarnated on Earth in the near future as a kind of Anti-Christ figure. This little book, "The Incarnation of Ahriman" deals with this presumably momentous event. In sharp contrast to the materialist Ahriman, Lucifer is a kind of fiery, ethereal air-spirit. Steiner believes that Lucifer, Ahriman and God are all mixed up in other spiritual traditions. Thus, he believes that Satan in Milton's "Paradise Lost" is Ahriman spouting the characteristics of Lucifer, while God in the same poem is really Lucifer pretending to be divine! Even Goethe (whom Steiner greatly admired) got it all wrong, letting Faust be confronted by one adversary only (Mephistopheles), who combines luciferic and ahrimanic elements.

What struck me when reading Steiner's lectures on Ahriman, and also some other Anthroposophical material, is that neither Lucifer nor Ahriman are "evil" in the robust, metaphysical sense in which Satan is evil in Christianity. In fact, it's unclear in what sense Lucifer can be said to be evil at all. He brings enlightenment, gnosis and high culture to humanity. Lucifer's negative influence is due to his attempts to lure humanity away from its true gods and creators, and for this reason Lucifer wants humans to be independent-minded. Perhaps he is best seen as an ambivalent Prometheus figure? In this book, Steiner explains that Lucifer incarnated as a human being about 4000 years ago in China. He inspired many of the ancient high cultures, to some extent including the Greeks. Steiner even writes that the incarnation of Christ could only be approached through luciferic gnosis as long as Lucifer's influence was still strong on our planet. Presumably, Gnosticism was therefore Luciferic - but note that Steiner doesn't reject Gnosticism!

Ahriman, by contrast, seems to be wholly negative. He is the spirit-being of materialism, dullness and coarseness. Quite frankly, however, this doesn't seem very "evil" either. Ahriman will incarnate on Earth at some point during the present millennium (perhaps wisely, Steiner gives no specific date). Already before his actual incarnation, Ahriman and various ahrimanic beings are laying the groundwork for his coming. Steiner regards materialist science and scientism as two harbingers of Ahriman. Nationalism is another: president Wilson's slogan "self-determination for every nation, even the smallest" is Ahrimanic. Steiner is also annoyed by the fact that the political establishments in Europe rejected his proposal for a "three-ordered society", and connects this to Ahrimanic influences, as well. Somewhat surprisingly, both traditional Christianity and liberal theology are equally Ahrimanic. Only the peculiar Anthroposophical interpretations of the Gospels would do. At one point, the lecturer exclaims: "No greater service could be done to Ahriman than to make sure that a great number of people do not read anthroposophical literature".

The incarnation of Christ at the chronological midpoint between Lucifer's and Ahriman's respective incarnations is said to be necessary in order to balance the two negative forces. This also strikes me as a rather strange message: rather than defeating his evil adversaries, Christ simply "balances" them, once again suggesting that they aren't evil as in *really* evil. However, the editors' foreword briefly mentions another spirit-being, the sun demon Sorath, who might presumably be the Really Evil One, since Sorath is the direct enemy of The Lamb. As for Ahriman's future incarnation, Steiner says very little apart from what I have already mentioned. Thus, the reader is left without a clue as to the eventual fate of Ahriman, or the humans under his spell.

Fortunately, there is another book that just might answer that question: "The future of humanity and the Earth as foreseen by Rudolf Steiner", by Richard Seddon.

Remember: Ahriman doesn't want you to read it, so if you do, who knows, you might actually save the world?!

Gee, what a mindjob.