Holy Night 11

January 3-4 – Scorpio

The eleventh night: the struggle with the Guardian of the Threshold.

Mystery: building up the Grail Castle in ourselves. Confessing ourselves more and more in faithfulness to the highest!

Rudolf Steiner’s indications for the Holy Nights given to Herbert Hahn
Translation from German by Laura Zanutto 2015 and Mark Willan 2016

11. Heilige Nacht

3./4. Januar – Skorpion

Die elfte Nacht: Der Kampf mit dem Hüter der Schwelle.

Mysterium: Die Gralsburg in uns aufbauen. Sich immer mehr in Treue zum höchsten bekennen! R. Steiner

Eleventh Contemplation: Kristina Kaine

In a lecture given on March 9, 1913 Rudolf Steiner speaks very directly about the ideas he presents about this Holy Night.

“At this point [the capacity to overcome this enhanced selfishness] we come across a deeply stirring phenomenon, which appears from the very outset. It may take on various forms, but it is justified to designate it as the approach to the threshold of death. We feel as if that part which we call our Ego or the soul were torn away from us as if by lightning, taken away from us. Everything which formerly appeared to be connected with us now seems to be severed from us. Our own self appears like a Being outside; we face it in the same way in which we confront an object of the external world.

Though it is easy to describe this in words, it is one of the most stirring experiences which we can have. The ground under our feet seems to vanish. Everything which constituted our thoughts and feelings is surrendered, given up. But if we succeed in remaining steadfast, we shall be borne over a kind of abyss. This experience awakens a feeling which lived in us in a dormant state and which must now rise to the surface: it is the fear of the unknown.

The spiritual world is always present, but we do not know it, and at this moment we confront it as if it were a void. This gives rise to a feeling of fear. But if we proceed regularly along the spiritual path, we should not think that we are in any way endangered by this experience. It forms part of self-education, for we must acquire the strength to bear the sight of the spiritual world — we develop the strength and steadfastness enabling us to bear its sight. In ordinary life we are protected against it and we speak of a guardian of the threshold.

The fact that ordinarily we are not conscious of such things does not prove that they do not exist within the soul. The soul is a twofold being: within its depths it often presents an entirely different aspect from the one which we know. We may, for instance, hate a person and be conscious of this feeling, yet our hate may simply be the cloak of love and we daze ourselves because this love cannot come to full expression. Not only Faust, but every human being, has two souls.

A soul investigator may come across the following: In ordinary life the human being finds support and strength by checking the fear that lives in his subconsciousness. But a spiritual investigator cannot fail to see the fear which always lives in the soul’s depths. He enters the spiritual world by overcoming this fear. If this fear rises to the surface without entering human consciousness, if it knocks at the door, as it were, and a person ignores it in spite of all, what takes place and what enables that person to overlook this feeling? He pushes down fear, as it were, by denying the existence of the spiritual world.” How Can We Gain Knowledge of the Supersensible Worlds?

Art: The Resurrection by Raphael

The Holy Night Reflections written between 2011 – 2016 are available on Amazon

The Holy Nights contemplations written between 2016 and 2021 are available on Amazon