Since the Trinity is the first and last essence of all cosmic evolution, physical as well as spiritual, it is not at all easy to explain in words and concepts. However, Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy gives us a very profound conception of the Trinity. In the light of the science of the spirit Father, Son and Holy Spirit become comprehensible under a multiplicity of aspects and relationships that nevertheless refer to each other, following a series of metamorphoses.
However, I must give a warning, so that no misunderstandings can be created: this study has no claim to "explain" the Mystery of the Trinity and its relations with other spiritual beings. Quite the contrary. The intention of this scientific-spiritual study is to "unfold" the relations between the Trinity and other spiritual beings, so as to provide a map of relations through which to orient oneself. The Trinity is the most grandiose and sacred mystery of which man is a witness:for this reason it is necessary to become aware of it.
The aim is for each individual to establish an individual relationship with the being and the mystery of the Trinity. This study will in fact demonstrate that the anthroposophical conception of the Trinity opens boundless horizons to the spiritualseeker who investigates its essence and manifestation. Like any other study on this blog, there may be inaccuracies and errors that I will be happy to discuss, modify and correct.
Logosophy, the Holy Trinity
The Trinity is first of all composed of the Three Logoi:
First Logos
Second Logos
Third Logos
Questi Tre Logoi sono conosciuti con diversi nomi nelle varie tradizioni spirituali: nell’induismo sono noti come Trimurti (Brahma, Visnu e Shiva); nello gnosticismo come Protennoia Trimorfica (Padre, Madre, Figlio); nella religione egiziana come Osiride, Iside e Horus. Ma nonostante queste differenze superficiali la concezione della triplice divinità è comune a tutta l’umanità, mentre la assume la manifestazione più consona a quel dato popolo grazie all’intervento delle guide spirituali dell’umanità di ogni periodo storico.
In the Jewish Kabbalah the Three Logoi take the name of:
First Logos: Ain, the Nothing
Second Logos: Ain Soph, the Unlimited
Third Logos: Ain Soph Aur, the Unlimited Light
In orphism, the cosmos is born from an egg on which the serpent of Eternity, the Uroboros, is wrapped several times (4 or7).
In the cosmic egg the coils of the snake Uroboros, from the original circle, are divided into four circles, or the four worlds, and then into seven circles, or the orbits of the planets.
These three principles, like the Christian Trinity, then give rise to all creation through the emanation of the ten Sephiroths that make up the Tree of Life. They are three shells that make up the triple shell of the cosmic egg (or orphic egg) inside which there is the space within which creation takes place and the Tree of Life germinates.
When in the Middle Ages the Kabbalah entered Christian mystical circles, it was understood that in Jewish esoteric wisdom the Trinity was prefigured and that therefore the Trinitarian conception must already have been part of the original Christianity. For this reason it, although only implicit in the Gospels, is adopted as the truth of tradition by the Catholic Church.
Even within anthroposophy, the Christian terminology of the three Persons of the Trinity is used:
Primo Logos: Father
Second Logos: Son
Third Logos: Holy Spirit
Despite the male declination, it is necessary to conceive the Trinity as non-sexual even though in its manifestations it can alternatively assume active or passive polarity to carry out the plan of Creation. We will see later on the relationships that exist between the three Persons.
The Trinity and the Tripartite Man
But if anthroposophy adopts Catholic terminology, it distances itself from its conception in relation to man. In Catholicism, in fact, the Trinity is a totally transcendent god who leaves man rather abandoned in a "valley of tears" such as the Earth. For anthroposophy (but also in other esoteric ways), instead, man contains in himself the Trinitarian principle, even if at a less elevated spiritual evolutionary level.
For this reason, the Trinity is also reflected in the occult constitution of the human being, that is, in the tripartition in body,soul and spirit which in turn are the reflection of the powers of the soul (wanting, feeling, thinking). Thus, as is indicated in the Meditation of the Foundation Stone:
Father: will in the limbs (body)
Son: feel in the spare (soul)
Holy Spirit: thinking in the head (spirit)
And in turn the Trinity is reflected in the threefold spirit of man:
Father in the Spirit-Man or the physical body transformed by the I
Son in the Vital Spirit, the etheric body transformed by the I
Holy Spirit in the Spiritual Self, the astral body transformed by the I
These are the emanations of the very essence of the Three Logos of the Trinity within the microcosm of man. In fact, it can be said that just as authentic esotericism recognizes the tripartition in body, soul and spirit, so authentic esotericism must admit the tripartition of God in the Trinity. Having a spirit, man is potentially a participant of the Trinity, he can grasp its existence and conversely man can be understood by his Creator. In this sense the Trinity is immanent in man. The Catholic Church instead decreed the total division between man and the Trinity, when in the Council of Constantinople in 869 A.D. it introduced the dualistic conception of man in body and soul, denying the spirit.
The Trinity in Eternity
If we then ascend from the microcosm to the macrocosm, and then further on, outside of space-time, into Eternity, we alsohave that the Trinity is transcendent to Creation itself:
The Father is Consciousness in Eternity, He creates consciousness from nothing but draws experience from the previous evolutionary chain;
The Son is Life in Eternity, he gives life to consciousness by creating a being;
The Holy Spirit is the Form in Eternity, he produces beings endowed with form.
These are the continuous actions that from Eternity pour into the flow of cosmic evolution, making it not only possible in principle, but also existing both in space-time and in the eternal present. This fundamental activity of the Trinity never fails, while its manifestation changes within evolution itself, as we shall see later.
The hidden constitution of the Trinity
In fact, although the Trinity is in Eternity, that is, beyond the time span described by the Seven Metamorphoses of the Earth, its lower constituent limbs extend within the space and time of Creation. These spiritual arts correspond to how the Three Logoi enter into relation with the angelic choirs of the First, Second and Third Hierarchy:
The Father enters into relation with the First Hierarchy of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones and thus with the will of man in the Man-Spirit and in the physical body;
The Son enters into relation with the Second Hierarchy of Dominations, Virtues and Elohim and therefore with man's feeling in the Vital Spirit and in the etheric body;
The Holy Spirit enters into relation with the Third Hierarchy of Archai, Archangels and Angels and therefore with man's thinking in the Spiritual Self and in the astral body.
In this way are indicated the relationships present in the Foundation Stone given by Steiner at the Christmas Convention of 1923/1924.
The Trinity and the Spiritual Hierarchies
Each of the Persons of the Trinity has a closer relationship with one of the Spiritual Hierarchies as a whole, and with one of the angelic choirs in particular. When one of the three Persons manifests itself it does so through a particular angelic hierarchy and choir which it leads:
The color blue refers to the relationship with the Father, red to that with the Son and yellow to that with the Holy Spirit.
Although the Trinity is active in all Spiritual Hierarchies, individual Persons are more in relation to a specific Hierarchy and choir: The Father (blue) is in close connection with the First Hierarchy as a whole and with the choirs of Thrones (1st), Dominations (2nd), Principalities (3rd); the Son with the Second Hierarchy as a whole, with the choirs of Seraphim (1a), Power (2a), Archangels (3rd) and Man (10th); the Holy Spirit with the Third Hierarchy as a whole and with the choirs of Cherubim (1st), Virtue (2nd), Angels (3rd).
In the manifestation of creation, when the cosmic will of the Father comes into action, it descends from Eternity into the flow of evolution through the Thrones or Spirits of Will, then through the Dominations or Spirits of Wisdom and finally through the Principalities or Spirits of Time. As a whole, then, the action of the First Hierarchy is a reflection of the cosmic consciousness of the Father, whereby in their exterior life they create worlds, in their interior life they create beings who are their descendants in nature. These are the Spirits of the Cyclical Periods who operate in all the cyclical alternations of time: the alternation of day and night, the alternation of seasons. They form the Ego of the Earth and coordinate the animal, vegetable and animal group souls, as well as the elementals.
The feeling of the Son instead manifests itself through the Seraphim, followed by the Powers and the Archangels. An important manifestation at the level of the Archangels was that of the three super-sensitive sacrifices of Christ which took place before the Mystery of Golgotha. This entity, born of the union of Christ and an Archangel, was the Adamic soul of the Jesus of Luke's Gospel, untouched by the expulsion from the Earthly Paradise. Christ then became incarnated in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, thus sanctioning his union with the destiny of humanity and the Earth of which he became the Spirit. The life of the Son is then expressed through the Second Hierarchy as a whole: outwardly they express themselves through the creation of the group souls of plants and animals to which they remain linked, while inwardly they stimulate the life of these same beings. On the whole, the descendants of the Second Hierarchy are the astral body (soul) of the Earth.
The thinking of the Holy Spirit is manifested through the Cherubim, which are the spirits who preside over the signs of the zodiac, then over the Virtues or Spirits of the Movement, and finally over the Angels, especially the Guardian Angels of human beings. As a whole, the Third Hierarchy works for the Holy Spirit: outwardly they express themselves through the production of the elementals, while interiorly they experience the fullness of their spirit. On the whole they are the etheric body of the Earth.
The Trinity in cosmic evolution
The Three Logoi are also the reason behind the triple seven (777) or completion number: in fact, after 7 x 7 x 7 = 343 stages of development, in spiritual evolution is achieved the completion of that evolutionary chain. Everything that happens after these 343 stages occurs as the beginning of another evolutionary chain (following the law of the superior octave). Each Logos is represented in this mystical number by a single 7 so that the highest number of completion occurs in the relationship between God, Macrocosm and Microcosm:
7 First Logos: God.
7 Second Logos: Macrocosm
7 Third Logos: Microcosm
The Three Logoi: the first Logos, God or the Father; the second Logos, Macrocosm or the Son; the third Logos, Microcosm or the Holy Spirit.
The Three Logos manifest themselves in evolution according to the relationships given by the number of completion 777:
First Logos: 7 Metamorphoses of the Earth existing as archetypes in Eternity;
Second Logos: 7 Elohim creators of the Macrocosm;
Third Logos: 7 Chakras as etheric organs of the Microcosm.
The completion of these three evolutionary series will occur at the end of the Future Vulcan, when man will have become a creator, completing the conquest of the seventh chakra, the basal one, and with it the foundation of the physical body. Atthat point we reach the end of the present planetary chain: the Earth will become a fixed star, the new Sun, and finally from a fixed star it will become the future zodiacal belt. In this process the cosmos of love of Vulcan will sacrifice itself, cavitating, thus becoming the new Zodiac of the next creation of the Man-God.
Within the 7 Metamorphoses of the Earth, each Person of the Trinity is more active within a particular pair of planetary metamorphoses:
Father: Ancient Saturn + Future Volcano i.e. 1 = 7 in the Upper Devachan. In the Ancient Saturn the Father acted through the Thrones or Spirits of Will in charge of man's evolution;
Son: Ancient Sun + Future Venus i.e. 2 = 6 in the Lower Devachan. In the Ancient Sun the Son acted through the Dominations or Spirits of Wisdom;
Holy Spirit: Ancient Moon + Future Jupiter i.e. 3 = 5 in the Astral World. In the Ancient Moon the Holy Spirit acted through the Virtues or Spirits of the Movement.
Within the metamorphosis of the Earth, instead, the last constitutive limb of the Trinity, the Spirits of Form or Elohim, acted as those charged of the evolution of the human being. Moreover, at the passage between the half Mars and the half Mercury, Christ, the Son, is incarnated in the body of Jesus of Nazareth in order to fulfill the Mystery of Golgotha. Finally, as intermediaries between humanity and Christ, there are 7 Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings, part of the Circle of 12 Bodhisattvas.
The Elohim then reflect through their spiritual activity throughout creation because, as representatives of the physical body of the Trinity, they are responsible for the actual work of Creation. The macrocosm as a whole is therefore the ultimate manifestation of God's physical body, a crystallization of the forming activity of the Elohim.
The macrocosmic creation of the Elohim is followed hierarchically by the action of the seven archangels of the ages. Steiner specifies that three of these are particularly related to the activity of one of the Three Logoi:
Anael of Venus directs the power of the Father's consciousness that creates the centers of consciousness of existence;
Michael of the Sun directs the power of the Son's life by infusing it into the Father's ideas, ideas thus become beings;
Samael of Mars directs the power of the form of the Holy Spirit giving it to the life created by the Son, thus creating living forms.
The Trinity and the Trinity of Evil
We can then consider the numerology that the Trinity adumbrates: the Trinity is expressible as 3, that is, the sum of the three Persons in One = 111. Since each of the three Persons relates to itself and to the other two Persons, we arrive at 3 times the three Persons = 333. 333 is therefore the number of the internal relations of the Trinity in Eternity. The sum of three times three is 9, the number of the occult constitution of man (triple body, triple soul, triple spirit) and of the angelic choirs, the agents of the Trinity (Father: First Hierarchy, Son: Second Hierarchy, Holy Spirit: Third Hierarchy). If we multiply the 3 of each of the Persons of the Trinity by the 3 angelic choirs through them, we obtain 999, which is the opposite of 666 the number of the Beast. Therefore, if through 999 the Trinity manifests itself in evolution, in the same way the man proceeds in evolution; in 666 its opposite occurs and therefore man proceeds in involution under the number of the Antichrist.
The Trinity of Evil is opposed to the Trinity, but while Father, Son, Holy Spirit also exist in Eternity; Asura, Arimane and Lucifer exist only in the sphere of evolution and therefore they will come to some extent rendered by human spiritual action. Only Sorath, the solar demon, exists outside of time and space.
666 can be considered the number of the Trinity of Evil (Asura-Arimane-Lucifer), that is, the overthrow of the perfect square of the Trinity 333. In the sphere of evolution Asura is the overthrown Father (body), Arimane is the overthrown Son (soul), Lucifer is the overthrown Holy Spirit (spirit). But in the sphere of Eternity there is only one being, the Anti-God, called Sorath the solar demon and antichrist par excellence. But not only: 666 is also a precise indication of a series of evolutionary stages of the Earth: at the sixth metamorphosis, sixth condition of life and sixth condition of form of the Earth (666) the great barrier will be completed: the definitive separation of the planetary chain of the Earth from the alternative one governed by the powers of the obstacle (luciferic, arimanic, asuric and the antichrist Sorath), the Eighth Sphere, will be complete. Evolved humanity will have redeemed evil and will be free to proceed in evolution until it reaches the divine stage. The rest of humanity is no longer human, it is trapped in the Eighth Sphere and will be led towards an evolution among the choruses of the asuric, arimanic or luciferic powers of the obstacle.
The Trinity and the Zodiac
Let now see the Trinity with respect to number 12, that is, the circle of the Zodiac. If we place the spiritual constitution of the Trinity alongside the sequence of the zodiac signs we have, that:
First Logos
Second Logos
Third Logos
They are in Eternity.
It follows the occult constitution according to the Zodiac:
The Father corresponds to the Zodiac in its entirety.
Aries: Son (the Lamb)
Bull: Holy Spirit
Gemini: Seraphim
Cancer: Cherubim
Lion: Thrones
Virgin: Dominations
Libra: Virtue
Scorpio: Elohim
Sagittarius: Archai
Aquarius: Archangels
Capricorn: Angels
Pisces: Man
The constitution of the Trinity can be understood if we take into account that its bodies are actually entire angelic choirs endowed with their own identity, spiritual role and consciousness. Obviously these bodies are not subject to decay like thesubtle bodies of ordinary man: God's constituent limbs behave, at an immeasurably higher level, like the subtle bodies of the most sublime initiates who continue their evolution by acting from the spiritual world.
The constitution of the Trinity can be understood if we take into account that its bodies are actually entire angelic choirs endowed with their own identity, spiritual role and consciousness. Obviously these bodies are not subject to decay like thesubtle bodies of ordinary man: God's constituent limbs behave, at an immeasurably higher level, like the subtle bodies of the most sublime initiates who continue their evolution by acting from the spiritual world.
Or again, to render the same idea from another point of view, we can say that every body of God behaves in itself like the Self of man, which is the only part that continues its evolution without ever being born or dying (unnatal and immortal). Thus, the body (the First Hierarchy), the soul (the Second Hierarchy) and the spirit of the Trinity (the Third Hierarchy) of the Trinity continue to evolve over time, the Self of the Trinity is threefold and includes the Holy Spirit, Son and Father; while the three Logoi are in the sphere beyond evolution, that is, in Eternity. With the entire unfolding of his spiritual constitution, God is immanent in Creation and transcendent in Eternity.
The point of connection between the Trinity as appeared in the evolution of the Ancient Saturn and the rest of evolution, resides in the sign of the Scorpio (Power or Elohim or Spirits of Form): it will be remembered that during the metamorphosis of the Ancient Saturn, in the region of the Scorpio took place the death of the "heat eggs" that constituted the cosmic mass existing in that remote condition of existence. There, in the region of Scorpio, is where the Spirits of Form exert their influence on the flow of Consciousness which is emanated by the Father (First Hierarchy) and of Life by the Son (Second Hierarchy) along the series of bodies of the Trinity. This flow is finally manifested as a Form created according to time (presided over by the Principalities or Archai or Spirits of Time), the people (Archangels or Spirits of the People) and individuals endowed with karma (Guardian Angels), thus returning to the Third Hierarchy, under the aegis of the Holy Spirit, the Person closest to man.
These four choirs (Archai, Archangels, Angels, and Man) are the beings who passed their human stage in this planetary chain:
The Archai were the men of the Ancient Saturn;
The Archangels were the men of the Ancient Sun;
The Angels were the men of the Ancient Moon;
Man is the humanity of the Earth today.
All these angelic choruses are linked to the event of the creation of the Phantom of man, the archetypal physical body, on the Ancient Saturn by means of the Sacrifice of the Thrones, from which the Archai took "body" in the form of time, in which all the successive metamorphoses of the planetary chain then existed.
At the end of this series of metamorphoses we can unite what has been said above about the Trinity and the Spiritual Hierarchies, making the Science of the Spirit agree; with the emanations of God forming the branches of the Tree of Life in the Kabbalah; with the series of the Heavenly Spheres of Pythagoras and esoteric Christianity; with the astrological wisdom of the Chaldeans, up to the wisdom of ancient India given by the Seven Holy Rishi.
Cosmosophy, the Seven Spirits of God
Where Logosophy ends, Cosmosophy begins, which includes both the relationship between the Trinity and the 7 Planetary Spheres in which the Seven Spirits of God live.
From the Trinity to the Seven Spirits of God
But where does the relationship between the 3 in Eternity and the 7 in the Manifestation come from? They are the Seven Spirits of God or Seven Elohim. John, in his Revelation, describes the Seven Elohim four times. He calls them "the SevenSpirits standing before the Throne of God". These Seven Spirits were sent to Earth to fulfill Creation. Together they form a complex being, Elohim, formed by the Seven Elohim themselves:
John to the seven Churches which are in Asia: grace to you and peace from Him who is, who was and who is to come, from the seven spirits who stand before His throne. - Revelation 1:4
To the angel of the Church of Sardis write: Thus speaks He who possesses the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works; you are believed to be alive, but instead you are dead. - Revelation 3:1
Out of the throne came lightning, voices and thunder; seven lamps lit burning before the throne, the symbol of the seven spirits of God. - Revelation 4:5
Then I saw standing upright in the midst of the throne surrounded by the four living creatures and by the waking ones a Lamb, as if immolated. He had seven horns and seven eyes, a symbol of the seven spirits of God sent upon the whole earth. - Revelation 5:6
The activity of the Trinity is expressed by following the number seven, for seven are the possible relationships between the three Persons of the Trinity. Bearing in mind that the Trinity in itself is always present in Eternity, the relationship changes if we enter into the passing of time.
Initially the relation is between the First and the Second Logos (the following sketches are by Rudolf Steiner himself):
In the First Logos Consciousness, Life and Form are still undifferentiated. The Father is therefore not manifest, he is the darkness of the Ain of the Kabbalah. Reflecting himself, he acquires self-consciousness and, by sacrificing his life, he originates the Second Logos or Ain Soph, the Unlimited Light. This Second Logos contains on the one hand the spiritual image of the First Logos, on the other hand its own nature, that is, the absolute desire for Life. Father and Son give life to beings endowed with Consciousness and Life, but without form. These beings are the Spiritual Hierarchies.
In the course of cosmic evolution one can see a manifest reflection of this relationship in the passage from the metamorphosis of the Ancient Saturn to that of the Ancient Sun, in the respective manvatara (cosmic days).
The Christian confessions that deny the Trinity stop at the reality of the First Logos, that is, they deny that it generated Life from Self-Consciousness. The confessions that instead come to conceive the Second Logos have found difficulty in understanding that it is twofold, containing both the spiritual image of the Father and the Life of the Son. From this misunderstanding arises the diatribe between monophysism and duophysism (or Nestorianism), as well as a whole series of Christological conceptions that vary on this theme.
Then the Third Logos is added, which reflects within itself the other two Logoi:
Logosophy: the relationship between the Three Logoi: a = First Logos (light of the spiritual world), bc = Second Logos; abc = Third Logos (a = spiritual darkness, b = absolute desire, c = the spiritual image of the First Logos).
The Third Logos originates as a reflection of the other two Logoi and the relationships that exist between them. In it lives a triple reflection with the spiritual image of the First Logos, the mirror image of what the First Logos did in the Second (life or absolute desire), and finally what the Second Logos gave back to the First Logos (spiritual darkness). With the addition of the Third Logos the multiple manifestation of Creation within the Form can begin. In fact, with the third metamorphosis of the Ancient Moon, the forces of the Holy Spirit in which the Three Logoi operate descend. Once the Ancient Moon has ended, we pass to the Earth, where the Trinity is manifested as the Seven Elohim: they create the worldin seven days.
In this triple reflection of the Holy Spirit there is the resolution of the "question of the Filioque" sanctioned in the Council of Toledo in 589: the Holy Spirit could not exist if there had not existed a reciprocal relationship between the Father and the Son.
Now we can also understand in another light the words of Christ in Matthew 18,20:
For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am among them.
Since the Trinity is present within man as a triple spirit flowing from the Self, one man alone reflects the Father, a second reflects the Son, and in the relationship between them the Holy Spirit arises. When a third person is also present, there is the materialization of the work of the Holy Spirit, or Creation, as in the case of the union between man and woman to generate a third person, the Son. When the three human persons are united, they become the three Persons because Christ is in their midst.
In the Indian tradition these three reflections of the Third Logos, the Holy Spirit, are called Guna and have a correspondence with the First Tria of Paracelsus in Alchemy:
Tamas: the spiritual darkness (of the Third Logos) i.e. the Form, corresponds to the Philosophical Salt;