Souls...... some deep stuff..
“In our long human journey, individual and collective, the journey that science calls evolution, many indeed are the turning points. But they are not so much turning points in outer, material manifestation in the fossils of paleontology, for those fossils are only the shed garments worn by humans in an earlier age, vestments designed by providence to meet the need of a changing human consciousness moving through time. Where the real evolution occurs, for which the necessary outer garments are tailored over time, is in the realm of consciousness as it transitions from spirit to matter and back to spirit.” —Edward Reaugh Smith (from the introduction)
page 22] What does it mean that Christ was the fulfillment of all true religions? We've seen above that within Judaism itself Christ spoke to Moses and to Isaiah who thus perceived the Christ spirit in its descent. Far earlier the prehistoric Zarathustra (ca. 5,000 B.C.) in ancient Persia had seen the descending Christ in the Sun's aura and called it Ahura Mazda (Great Aura); see I-19 at p. 573 in BB. Later the Egyptians perceived the divinity of the Great Sun Spirit. At the birth of the Jesus child in Matthew's Gospel, those from Persia of the spiritual heritage of Zarathustra, called "wise men" or "magi" (Mt 2,1-2), recognized their master as the "star"descending over Bethlehem. Though the early Christians found it necessary to distinguish themselves from the pagan religions, in failing to fully comprehend the Christ event they also failed to adequately reflect upon the fact that the ancient peoples had perceived the great Spirit descending. It was in this sense that the Incarnation fulfilled all the true ancient religions.
How could the people of Christ's time know about reincarnation and karma and not consider it significant enough to talk about and write about? It is known that they shared a shared belief that they were living in the last days when Christ would return and all of material creation would be destroyed upon his return. Why would anyone concern oneself with a next life on an Earth that would soon no longer exist? doyletics.com
By evolution we are not talking about the physical world of minerals, plants, animals, and human beings as science does, but rather the structure of the invisible world of human consciousness as it changes during these dramatic turning points in history. It is the evolution of consciousness that we do well to focus upon as we review these lectures by Rudolf Steiner.
Steiner, who writes about these turning points in history, has been responsible for many turning points of his own, and a future look back at great “turning points in spiritual history,” will no doubt include the contributions of Rudolf Steiner. In his Introduction to this book, Edward Reaugh Smith writes about one of Steiner’s contributions, the revelation that Lazarus after being raised from the dead took the name John:
[page x] [Rudolf Steiner] in his landmark book Christianity as Mystical Fact . . . first identified Lazarus as Evangelist John.
Similarly, Steiner revealed to the world that Naboth and Elijah in parts of the Bible were the same human being. Smith discussed how this came to be in his essay "Widow's Son" in his book The Burning Bush, crediting Steiner for describing the nature of the connection between Naboth and Elijah:
[page xii] The focus of that essay was the personality known in the book of Kings as both Naboth and Elijah, for until Steiner it could hardly be known that they were one and the same. Naboth was the personality's name prior to his initiation into the mysteries of Mithra, Elijah the name given to him when initiated as described in the book of Kings.
Smith's twenty-seven page Introduction provides an excellent précis of the many contributions Steiner made to furthering our understanding of how Zarathustra, Hermes, Moses, Elijah, and Buddha each played a crucial role in the life of Jesus and his subsequent baptism. His Introduction is itself worth the price of the book.
One short excerpt shows the connection between the Jesus infant in the Luke Gospel and Buddha's perfected astral body which had filled the infant.
[page xxvi] It is said of the righteous and devout Simeon, who when the parents brought the infant Jesus to the temple according to the custom of the law took the infant up in his arms and blessed him, saying, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace . . . for mine eyes have seen thy salvation," that he Simeon was reincarnated Asita, the wise man who had recognized the infant Gautama as the Bodhisattva at his birth and now recognized his former master in the infant Jesus Child.
steinerbooks.org
But there are many people who have lost their way because the external sciences haven been systematically undermining the very basis of Christ Jesus's divinity. By using methods of history, archaeology, and anthropology they strive to convince people that He was but a human being, if he existed at all, and that his teachings are just one among many great teachings which may benefit gullible believers.
[page 206] Both natural science and history have come to a stage where there is definite skepticism concerning all spiritual matters, and these external sciences are now employed merely in collecting and associating outer perceptual facts, wholly regardless of that underlying spiritual reality that may be apprehended in all phenomena capable of sense perception.
External scientists have no tools or procedures which allow them to do anything but assiduously avoid any taint of spiritual or otherwise supersensible influences. As a trained physicist, I was carefully taught in that manner, if I were to keep to the straight and narrow pathway of real science. Unfortunately for our scientific community that kind of training puts blinders on them, similar to those we used to put on horses which had to travel through the streets of our cities. Horses would be spooked by the dark shadows from the buildings to either side of the street, and be subject to bolting unexpectedly. The only way to keep the horse pulling the cart down the middle of the street was to put blinders on it. We cannot allow external scientists to have the last words on the existence of the spiritual world or any of the realities which exist outside their measuring tools and procedures. Scientists who wear blinders in their everyday work life are apt to keep them on in their personal lives and miss much of the soul and spiritual life which is happening all around them, but outside the purview of their blindered sight, up until now.
[page 207] The position that human beings have assumed as expert and judge of the world does not represent reality, for they can arrive at true concepts only after they have freed themselves from their present false ideas, risen to a higher standard of thought, and overcome those barriers that cause them to view all things in distorted and unreal form — such a consummation would be perceptive redemption.
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The Soul's Long Journey
How the Bible Reveals Reincarnation
Edward Reaugh Smith
steinerbooks.org
Personal note: my mind is not as developed as it should be,, lol, so I present this as another possibility, as Ed Smith , is an old family friend. it is interesting to note though, that he made his fortune from the cemetery business in buying and selling cemeteries and the associated land and development,,, you have to have somewhere to put the bodies...........
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