Ahrimanic Counterimages In The Age Of Michael
Throughout his investigation in Spiritual Science, Rudolf Steiner deeply expounded upon both good and evil. He emphasized that our current epoch has the special task to wrestle with the problem of Evil. In his lecture Faust and the Problem of Evil, referring to the present epoch in which we live he asserts: “We have to solve in the widest sense, in a living and energetic way, what we may call the problem of Evil. I beg you to envisage this most thoroughly. Evil will approach the human being of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch in every conceivable form. Scientifically he will have to solve the nature and essence of Evil.“ 1
In particular Steiner emphasizes the importance of the human will in this struggle: “In one’s loving and in one’s hating, one will have to grapple in the right way with all that springs from Evil. One will have to fight and wrestle with the resistances of Evil to the impulses of the Will. All this is essential to the tasks of the fifth post-Atlantean time.” (1)
How do we approach this key task and its underlying role in the evolution of humankind? Steiner begins by helping us realize that “In order to have a feeling for what is good, we must also have a feeling for what is bad.”2 In this current time, we are all being challenged to observe evil and to become keenly conscious of it in order to better understand and actually be able to deeply “have a feeling for what is good.”
Steiner often stressed that evil works most powerfully through illusion and the subconscious. It is for this reason that it is crucial to identify and notice how evil shows up in the world today and to maintain a conscious awareness of it. “It is peculiar to humanity that one can only come to terms with the things with which one has to wrestle, if one extends one’s consciousness over them, i.e., if they do not remain in the unconscious…That is the peculiarity: Whatever evil impulses can possibly arise from the foundations of the cosmic order, must betray their presence to our consciousness.”
In his last Mystery Play, Steiner highlights “an important moment where Ahriman-Mephistopheles feels that he is recognized. At this moment the Impulse of Evil knows it.” (1) Steiner then illustrates a central element: “Those who are having to experience Evil have found a standpoint which enables them to stand not within Evil, but outside it. That is most important.” (1) In other words, Steiner puts forth a decisive strategy for us: “The human being of the fifth post-Atlantean age must somehow bring it about that Ahriman-Mephistopheles feels himself recognized by the human being.” (1) Steiner also stresses the importance of being awake and conscious. “…[T]his fifth post-Atlantean age has the task to go on into the inevitable battle with the most manifold forms of Evil. The impulses of human evolution must become sharp and clear again.” (1)
Among the most primary of spiritual beings Rudolf Steiner identified who bring evil into the world are Lucifer and Ahriman. These two beings each direct their own legion of spirits – Luciferic beings and Ahrimanic beings – and their respective legions are large and show up not just in external life but within human thought and the inner life of the human. Because these ancient spiritual beings and their hosts operate both in the outer world of external phenomena as well as the inner life – of human feeling, of human thought and of human will – they are not just beings but are significant forces which to reckon with. Lucifer and Ahriman operate as active principles with different qualities and therefore show up in different areas of inner and outer life. Although they both are evil, it is important to point out that Lucifer and Ahriman each provide the human make-up with important qualities. Both are actually necessary for bringing about the right kind of challenge for the human being to self-strengthen one’s capacities in order for humanity to become fully conscious and capable of freedom. The wise guides of humanity “knew that it lay in the wise plan of cosmic evolution to place these Beings where they were and to use them.” 3 Throughout his lectures and works, Steiner helped inform the culture by differentiating between Lucifer and Ahriman and also by identifying the Satan of the Bible as Ahriman. Although Steiner did not at all downplay the hazards of Lucifer, throughout his lectures, he increasingly emphasized the challenges that contemporary humanity would face through Ahriman. How did Steiner alert humanity concerning the Ahriman? Specifically by identifying this being as a proponent of the materialistic worldview – which sees all life as being comprised of only material substances and processes.
Evil as Counterfeit of Good
Evil is the counter pole of the good and shows up in the world as a counter-image or only an imitation of the good, in the sense that evil has no creative original powers and only imitates or counterfeits the truly original creativeness of God. J.R.R Tolkien, author of the The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, captured this very idea in The Return Of The King when Frodo describes the antagonist creatures called Orcs in this way: “The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own.” This concept of evil as counterfeit or caricature can be found in a biblical quote when Satan says, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high” (Isaiah 14:14). This passage mentions the “most high” yet only seeks to imitate or “be like” what is the highest.
One domain which Ahriman promotes is materialistic science and technological inventions. Science and technology have of course been tools for improving human existence, yet they continue to alter human destiny particularly when their impacts remain “unnoticed.” Among the most significant of modern human inventions is the computer. Today the leading edge of computer science is the use and pursuit of ever more human-like artificial intelligence (AI). The primary purpose of AI is not only to more accurately imitate human consciousness but, as the designers hope and continue to claim, surpass human intelligence.
There is something fundamental about the computer which bears a striking imitative quality to all biological life. In biological existence the cell membrane is that part of the cell which is the boundary of the cell. Because it is made up of molecules which are in a regular and repeated pattern, the cell membrane is considered a liquid crystal. The liquid crystal membrane allows the cell to both excrete waste as well as take in nutrition through channels that open and close. The cell membrane perceives the environment and thus mediates the inner life of the cell with the outside microscopic world. These capacities make the cell membrane the brain of the cell. The governing component of the computer which acts like a brain is the computer circuit. Made of silicon containing pathways of conductive metals, the computer circuit is what is called a semiconductor because it both allows and inhibits the flow of electrical current. Researchers have been able to open the channels of the cell membrane by using an electrical signal – using a biological cell as if it were a computer chip! (3) The cell membrane and the computer circuit have the same technical definition because, like the cell membrane, the computer circuit is also a liquid crystal which is a system of gates and channels. This is a strikingly literal instance of the imitation of life. 4
Steiner explained that whereas Lucifer has a special affinity for human thinking and feeling, Ahriman has an affinity for the human will. Steiner’s warning about the impact of Ahriman on the human will makes sense for Ahriman’s domain of materialistic technology is most notably altering human will on a massive scale through technological automation. Technology continues to replace what people otherwise have historically performed themselves. Even in conventional academic studies the technology of automation goes back far in history to the aqueducts built by Mayans 4000 years ago which performed the task of automatically transporting large amount of water. In modern history, the tasks once carried out by people were replaced by the machines of the assembly line of the 20th century, now, through machine learning (AI which teaches itself), automation has gone from replacing human physical tasks to replacing human thought and human creativity. Ironically, a good deal of human creativity in various technical fields is now directed towards writing the computer code upon which ever more sophisticated machine learning and AI is built! 5
Creating AI which in turn independently creates more AI becomes a “self”-sustaining, “self”-fulfilling prophecy. Yet, who is the “self” in this “self”-fulfilling prophecy; this “self”-fulfilling technology? Not only the people who want to bring about AI but Ahriman him-self. Ahriman becomes the “self” in this self-fulfilling prophecy because Ahriman acts through the technology, yet, more fundamentally, Ahriman acts through the intelligence and over-shadowed will of people who are seeking to bring about human-like self awareness of the computer, called singularity.
Another striking example of evil as counterfeit is a computer simulation of a developing human brain which is being developed by the world’s wealthiest and largest private medical research program, The Wellcome Trust. The Wellcome Trust was created in the 1930's through the will of pharmaceutical mogul Henry Solomon Wellcome whose corporation Burroughs Wellcome and Co eventually became pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. 6 Although Henry Wellcome set up the Wellcome Trust to be an interconnected system of charity and for-profit foundations, it is actually just a business model which masquerades as a charity. In the wake of COVID-19 the Wellcome Trust is currently justifying the research and development of various technologies – which they have historically tried to develop under various guises – by now framing them all as "healthcare". One of the Wellcome Trust’s largest initiatives is Wellcome Leap which is a set of research programs. 7 One of the Wellcome Leap’s programs is called First 1,000 Days or, 1KD. 8
Among the stated goals of 1KD is to use an array of auditory and visual recordings as well as wearable sensors and brain sensors to track a child’s every movement, reaction times, social interaction, emotion and brain activity and use that massive amount of surveillance data to map the child’s developing brain. From this large data set an in silico simulation model is being built of a human brain. The term in silico (‘in silicon’) refers to a computer simulation and is a reference to (i.e. imitation of) the Latin terms used in science which to refer to an experiment taking place inside the body (in vivo) or in a test tube or petri dish (in vitro). One of the overarching goals of 1KD is to use the artificial neural network as a model of what they consider to be the ideal, healthy human brain. The stated plan of 1KD is to assess children's brains to see if children’s brains fit the in silico model or not, and, if a child's developing brain does not fit the model deemed as the ideal of health, they suggest the use of various "interventions".
One of the primary justifications for the pursuit of achieving singularity is the modern popular Ahrimanic notion that it is only a sentient super machine intelligence which would be sophisticated enough to direct humanity away from catastrophe. This would of course leave the most crucial decisions of humanity to a computer to decide. Although some advancements in the field of artificial intelligence could give one the impression that singularity is not far off, it isn’t publicly known how far along, if at all, the well-funded technicians and computer scientists are in attempting to “create” singularity. It seems self evident that the most advanced form of imitation would be the best shot in the creation of human-like self-awareness and super intelligence of the computer. The most crucial aspect of an in silico brain model – such as the one sought for under the guise of healthcare by the Wellcome Trust’s 1KD program – is that eventually the brain model will no longer need to be provided with continual data to independently develop and operate.
It is not just data collected from children as part of a study but data collected from the activities of greater humanity which could be used to feed an in silico model of AI. Surveillance Capitalism is the name given to the commodification of data. Through an increasing number of data-gathering products of daily life data is being collected from more and more people across the Earth. Surveillance Capitalism only works when there is little to no regard for privacy. Data collection is not just a potential tool for the design of convenience with regard to products which adapt to individual use. Data mining and tracking (i.e. surveillance) of citizens is also the means which governments like China use the mechanism of the “social credit” system to control the population. Is it possible that more data and more data points is what is sought and being collected in order to contribute to the endeavor to create singularity with a type of in silico model?
An independently developing computer model which imitates the human brain doesn’t just have big implications for the field of AI but also for the overlapping field of transhumanism. The pinnacle of transhumanism seeks to merge the human with AI in the hopes of enabling a person to access all material knowledge in thought and eventually achieve immortality. In a 2004 interview Google entrepreneur Sergey Brin was asked if the goal of Google was to have the entire world’s knowledge connected directly to the mind – to which Brin replied, “To get closer to that – as close as possible... [I]t’s credible to imagine a leap as great as that from hunting through library stacks to a Google session, when we leap from today’s search engines to having the entirety of the world’s information as just one of our thoughts.”9 This kind of aspiration is the epitome of the Ahrimanic impulse which sees material knowledge as the pinnacle of knowledge and which seeks to sever the human’s connection to spiritual knowledge and achieve a kind of physical immortality.
Amazon’s virtual personal assistant, called Alexa, has a feature in development in which a deceased loved one’s voice can be replicated. Beyond just imitating the voice of the deceased is the more recent concept of a person achieving “digital immortality” by having aspects of a deceased person’s personality uploaded to the online cloud. Through the archiving, digitizing and analyzing of a deceased’s communications and online activity, a ‘realistic’ digital replica of a person is being sought through Artificial Intelligence.
The creation of virtual people parallels the rise of virtual reality. The very concept of virtual reality is of course to imitate the physical world. Due to the world being increasingly framed as “dangerous” from infectious diseases, once again under the banner of “health” and “safety” the idea of a person staying indoors and getting all their social needs met through a virtual world is being promoted. Social media giant Facebook just changed their name to Meta and is now focusing their business model on their virtual reality platform, called Metaverse. Virtual reality currently has 171 million users worldwide and is projected to be a 209 billion dollar industry by 2025.10
Counter-images of Spiritual-Cosmic Processes
With the emergence of virtual ‘people’ and virtual ‘realities’ and ideas as grandiose as the human actually achieving immortality through material technology, a bigger picture of the extent of the imitative, counter-image quality of evil begins to come into view. In fact, it is not just things and beings of the physical world which have counter-images but timeless spiritual-cosmic principles and processes have counter-images as well.
Steiner expounded upon seven conditions that the Earth goes through over a long duration of time and used the names of planets for each condition (Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan). These conditions can be considered incarnations of humanity as a whole and are called spheres. Steiner indicated that existing outside the seven spheres is an Eighth Sphere. The additional Eighth Sphere represents the opposition of the ‘good’ and normal development of human and spiritual beings. Steiner called the Eighth Sphere a “bogus creation” fabricated by Lucifer and Ahriman11. This bogus creation has more recently been justifiably compared to our contemporary term, “virtual reality” because both virtual reality and the Eighth Sphere are non-physical counter-images of the physical Earth condition. Although it is important to point out that the technology bringing forth “virtual reality” isn’t itself the Eighth Sphere, in a sense, the fabricated “virtual reality” is an imitation of the Eighth Sphere. The nature of this copy of a copy is itself reminiscent of digital technology and digital culture whereby infinite numbers of digital replicas (such as a piece of music or painting) can be produced.
Steiner differentiated different members (bodies) of the human being (physical body, etheric body, astral body, I-body) and we ourselves transform these into higher members along the evolutionary path of human development. Spirit-self is the name Steiner gave to the transformed astral body. Steiner pointed out an instance of an Ahrimanic counter-image related to modern economic life: “Funds, accumulation of capital, and its counterpole, credit, this apersonal and anti-personal element is what is to evolve as the Ahrimanic counter-image of Spirit-Self for the future of the social order.”12
Steiner here reveals that the members of the human constitution are subject to being mirrored in modern elements of the material/financial life. Financial credit has now evolved into becoming “social credit” mediated through technology. Although China is advanced in their use, social credit is already being primed in the West as an instrument of social engineering. For example – under the notion of anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming (a notion which is heavily scientifically contradicted and contested) – the use of social credit to track and influence a person’s decisions as they relate to such things as purchases and transportation activities in order to allegedly lower overall carbon emissions is currently being established.13 This kind of use of invasive surveillance technology doesn’t just have the potential to effect human will but, if established, will threaten the whole of human freedom.
Steiner emphasized that the highest morality is not based on the physical world of the senses or the laws or norms of society but on the purely ideal which is revealed to the individual as inner intuitions – what Steiner referred to as moral intuition. The person who doesn’t break a law merely because of the existence of an external law is not acting from a degree of morality as high as the person who chooses not to break a law because doing so goes against an inner moral intuition. Because social credit works entirely through surveilling and tracking the communication and behaviors of people, it does not inspire individuals to make choices based on moral intuitions. Social credit coerces a person to make generic choices which are based in fear and/or avoidance of punishment. In this way, social credit seems to be an anti-personal counter-image of true morality which comes through individual moral intuition.
Ahrimanic Counter-images in the Age of Michael
The most central figure focus in Anthroposophy is Christ and what occurred as a supersensible (i.e. nonphysical; spiritual) event in the Crucifixion of Christ which Steiner referred to as the Mystery of Golgotha. Archangels are the emissaries of Christ and are spirits who lead and help humanity to develop in ways which are beneficial for progressive evolution. Just as a personal guardian Angel guides an individual, Archangels help and guide humanity. The seven Archangels assist humanity in repeating cycles which last around 300 years. Archangel Michael is thought of as the most significant Archangel and his current time is from 1879 to about 2235. The Archangels each help humanity through their specific attribute and character. Unlike the other Archangels who have more to do with giving impulses to humanity, Steiner explained that Michael has a receiving nature and carries human deeds out into the cosmos.
“Michael concerns Himself most of all with that which humans create out of the Spirit. He lives with the consequences of all that humans have created. The other Spirits live more with the causes. Michael lives with the consequences. The other Spirits kindle in the human the impulses for that which one shall do. Michael will be the true spiritual hero of Freedom. He lets humans do, and He then takes what becomes of human deeds, receives it and carries it on and out into the Cosmos, to continue in the Cosmos what humans themselves cannot yet do with it.”14
Michael supports human self-knowledge through the acknowledging of the spiritual basis of nature and the human being. Steiner explained that to “think Michaelically” is to not just recognize the corporeal nature of the human but to cognize each and every human as no less a supersensible being than Angels and higher spiritual Beings. In this way the task of the age of Michael opposes Ahriman who sees all life as only inherited traits and physical corporeality. Michael is the one who brought Cosmic Intelligence to humanity. Steiner explained that Cosmic Intelligence is not a personally possessed intelligence but a “cosmopolitan”, “Pan-Intelligence” which is accessible to all of humanity. Ahriman on the other hand encourages intelligence which is personally possessed.
“Already the very strongest efforts are being made by Ahriman, and more still will be made in the future – the strongest efforts to acquire the Intelligence that has come into the hands of men. For if humans once became possessed by Ahriman, Ahriman himself, in human heads, would be possessing the Intelligence.” (14)
Steiner indicated that Michael’s impulse was previously brought through what Steiner referred to as the Michael-School. This school was a supersensible school in which human beings living between death and a new birth as well as super-human beings held a discipleship to Michael. The human beings who went through this school then incarnated and brought the Michaelic impulse into the world. Whereas Michael held a super-earthly school, there exists a sub-earthly counter-image of this school which was established by Ahriman.
“While Michael above was teaching his hosts, there was founded in the realm lying immediately below the surface of the Earth, a kind of sub-earthly, Ahrimanic school. The Michael School was in the super-earthly world; in the region beneath our feet — for the spiritual is actively at work in the sub-earthly region also — the opposing Ahrimanic school was founded.”15
Steiner warned of a coming physical incarnation of Ahriman which he said would take place some time in the third millennium. This of course means that the incarnation of Ahriman could already be among us presently. Regarding Ahriman’s activities on the physical Earth once incarnated Steiner stated: “When Ahriman incarnates in the West at the appointed time, he would establish a great occult school for the practice of magic arts of the greatest grandeur, and what otherwise can be acquired only by strenuous effort would be poured over humankind...Let it never be imagined that Ahriman will appear as a kind of hoaxer, playing mischievous tricks on human beings. No, indeed! Lovers of ease who refuse to have anything to do with spiritual science, would fall prey to his magic, for by means of these stupendous magic arts he would be able to make great numbers of human beings into seers — but in such a way that the clairvoyance of each individual would be strictly differentiated. What one person would see, a second and a third would not see. Confusion would prevail and in spite of being made receptive to clairvoyant wisdom, humans would inevitably fall into strife on account of the sheer diversity of their visions. Ultimately, however, they would all be satisfied with their own particular vision, for each of them would be able to see into the spiritual world. In this way all culture on the Earth would fall prey to Ahriman.”16
The way that Steiner describes how Ahriman’s school would most effectively seize those who love ease and how it would produce very differentiated visions and experiences in each student is reminiscent of technological dependence and the highly customizable nature of virtual reality. Although virtual reality can be used in a social way, virtual reality has such appeal exactly because the user can create their own virtual avatar and their own virtual world. Steiner indicated that psychic/clairvoyant abilities will be increasingly naturally coming to the fore and will continue to do so into the future. People developing extra-sensory abilities has implications for the potential for more and more people realizing the spiritual reality which is the basis of the human being and physical world (the Michaelic impulse). These abilities and realizations therefore pose a threat to Ahriman and the group who wish to control and alter the human body through such things as genetic manipulation, surveillance technology and AI. What better way to control/manage emerging psychic capacities than to mediate a person’s experience through a shadow world of images?
Personally Engaging a Counterbalance of Evil
“Opposite currents, polarities, must be held in balance, That can only be done if continually new influxes come directly from the spiritual world into what happens on Earth, that is, if new facts which concern the world are continually revealed out of the spirit.”17
From synthetic meat to the field of biomimicry, many more pages could be written identifying contemporary examples of counter-images and polarities of physical and spiritual processes, yet, once it is identified, what ways can evil be counterbalanced? Developing a keen eye for these things affords the opportunity to activate one’s will and exercise conscious free choice. One can simply choose to avoid evil and choose not participate in what goes against an inner sense of what is right and good. Yet, because evil ceaselessly insidiously counterfeits what evolves, simply “avoiding evil” doesn’t provide the needed counterbalance to evil. Counterbalance is to be found in novel living perspectives, thoughts and approaches which fully acknowledge the soul and spirit nature of the human and all the kingdoms of nature.
The fact that Steiner indicated that Michael's supersensible school is now “in heavenly isolation” (15) is consistent with Michael's receiving nature and Michael’s support of complete human freedom. The task of Michael on the Earth is to be carried out not by Michael but by human beings! This task occurs through a soul-spiritual activity which leads to comprehension of the spirituality in all beings and things. The world offered by technology is devoid of higher ideals which, when people allow themselves to connect to these ideals in thought, inspire the free human deeds which Michael receives and carries out into the cosmos. In the same way that moral intuition informs each person’s moral choices, Michaelic-thinking informs all of a person’s experiences in the world with the reminder of its basis in Spirit.
“Externally, humankind approaches today serious battles. In regard to these serious battles which are only at their beginning — I have often mentioned it here — and which will lead the old impulses of Earth evolution ad absurdum, there are no political, economical, or spiritual remedies to be taken from the pharmacy of past historical evolution. For from these past times come the elements of fermentation which first, have brought Europe to the brink of the abyss, which will array Asia and America against each other, and which are preparing a battle over the whole Earth. This leading ad absurdum of human evolution can be counteracted alone by that which leads humanity on the path toward the spiritual: the Michael path which finds its continuation in the Christ Path.” (17)
This article was originally published in the 2022 Autumn issue of New View, an Anthroposophical physical and digital magazine. Please consider subscribing to this wonderful publication. Top painting, The Fall Of The Rebel Angels by Luca Giordano (1634-1705).
Karmic Relationships Lecture 9; Rudolf Steiner; GA 240
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