‘What is old and outlived is not willing to give way, and tries to prolong its anachronistic
existence by various illegitimate means. Thus destructive forces arise within civilization and culture; forces of decline and disintegration.’
G.A. Bondarev
It comes as no surprise to learn that there are forces and players that wish to place the entire earth, and global human civilization, under the domination of materialism. And the character of the Anglo-American nations are perhaps better suited to be the front wave in this process. The forerunners in the promotion and implementation of deep materialism will come from these so-called ‘developed western nations.’ They shall serve as a prototype for the transformation of human society into a realm of deeply embedded techno-materialism. To execute this process, many high-profile people are sought out (such as politicians, financiers, and celebrities) to be the puppets – the marionettes – for promoting this agenda. This is the present state of affairs, regardless of how things may appear upon the shimmering surface. We have arrived upon a defining threshold that will dictate how people will proceed in their life experience upon this planet. How each person decides to pass this threshold will depend upon the choices and decisions they take now and within the proceeding years. As such a threshold approaches in the life of any human society or civilization, greater forces of chaos are unleashed at the same time there is the necessity for a drive towards coherent order. It is the ordering principle that allows a successful crossing of the transformational threshold whilst the chaotic attractor propels people, agencies, bodies, etc, into a distracting path away from the threshold and into an evolutionary dead-end.
Within the previous phase of human civilization, a life of the senses became the defining impulse, with emphasis upon the external, physical aspects. Around the middle to late 19th century a new impulse was introduced into modern western life that had as its aim the familiarization with non-physical realms of reality. This was the beginning of the spiritualism movement, alongside early American transcendentalism, theosophy, and occult themes which were to signal the beginning of a metaphysical impulse to prepare human society for the coming transformational period. Up until this time, human civilization had been immersed in a period of dense physicality and the growth of the individual. There had been a turning away from the metaphysical life, and at the same time many social forces were working to keep the transcendental impulse out of human life. This impulse had been replaced by an earthly static-religious structure based on rigid protocols rather than inspiration from the inner life.
The physical life experience had become one of material content rather than metaphysical exploration. It was coming to a point where it was almost impossible for human culture as a collective to take up the spiritual impulse. This coincided with the explosion of the second industrial revolution and the workhouses for the poor. Spiritual pursuits were a phantasmagorical luxury that few could afford. This situation was dramatically counteracted by the introduction of spiritualism, seances, afterlife phenomena, and eventually the appearance of the ‘Hidden Masters’ into human affairs. For all the controversy against Theosophy and the figures of Helena Blavatsky, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, and later Annie Besant, the movement had the effect of seeding a new stream of metaphysical ideas and teachings into the modern western era. As mentioned in the preceding essay, this literally opened the floodgates to a flow of personages that arrived upon the new shores promulgating occult, esoteric, and metaphysical teachings. The list is very, very long; and the ground, it seemed, was incredibly fertile. Yet where there is a visible intervention of such forces, they almost certainly attract their counterparts of the denying or negating forces.
As in a game, there are forces seeking to maintain balance and development and those with the aim to disrupt the balance. On the micro level, some of these forces can be recognized as individuals, groups, and organizations. On the macro level, these forces are not to be personified or anthropomorphized (i.e., humanized as specific personalities). Some forces can be recognized as supporting processes of disembodied fantasy; others as pushing for domination of intellect and deep materialism. However, without forces of opposition there would be no true or genuine freedom. The human agency of willpower needs to be exercised and strengthened, and this is accomplished through making choices and decisions, and acting upon them. Without friction there would be no movement – only the illusion of movement. Therefore, there are forces that can be utilized to develop a person’s own development even if these same forces are acting out of their own selfish, and even conflictual, interests. Without the ability to make a choice, the human being becomes a mere automaton. Until we face that dreadful moment (of being a human automaton) we have the challenge to pursue the path of human development through our responses to the counterforces that are blocking human advancement. And this challenge, far from disempowering us, has the opportunity to compel us even greater. These opportunities are what I refer to as the chaotic catalysts. And it appears that some of these ‘chaotic catalysts’ are now very active upon a global level.
A part of our human freedom to choose includes the ability to choose disbelief. What we choose not to believe forms as much of our condition as those things we do choose to believe. In this, certain forces of negation have their function, and it assists us to recognize this. It is within such times as these, of negating forces vying for dominance, that the urge of the metaphysical impulse can be felt by those who are receptive to it. The greater the physical disturbances, the more the metaphysical impulse is sensed in its need to infuse the material life. During moments of condensed, and intense, transformational periods within human evolution, there is likewise an increase in those ‘hindering forces’ that seek to contest the developmental surge. In such times, these disruptive forces increase their presence and interventions in an attempt to hamper, or block, the influence of the subtle forces within the earthly life of humankind. At the same time, it can be said that these ‘chaotic catalysts’ help to make available a period of transformational opportunity through providing disruptions that are more visible and thus actionable. It also marks a time, for those people receptive to influences of spirit-consciousness, to become more aware, alert, and proactively responsive to these impulses.
As the civilizational process comes near to the end of one of its cycles, there is inevitably a greater release of forces – affirming and denying – into the physical dimension. It becomes paramount for the individual to activate the power of human discernment and the choice to seek out order – inner balance and equilibrium – for this will create the necessary vibrational signature (resonance). Because of this, the forces of chaos are strongest in these areas, and seek to diminish balance and order by the most pervasive and intrusive means possible. Within this period of deep materialism (or hyper-materialism), these intrusive means are brought forward through the use of dominant technologies that monitor, track, and regulate human behaviour. Biological forms of social management are to be transferred into artificial structures and arrangements, presided over by machinic, programmed intelligence networks.
The counter-balancing task (the establishment of order) is for those people with receptive capacity to prepare themselves for the infusion of spirit-consciousness (the metaphysical fire) into the physical, and to become as receivers-transmitters for these energies. This requires that a person not only be balanced – bodily, mentally, and emotionally – but also to not be vibrationally entangled with the lower frequencies of dissonance that increasingly plague the physical domain. The alignments with spirit-consciousness are to be more subtle and less visible in outward form. The age of ‘identifiable worship,’ such as through external rituals, dress codes, and other exterior signs of belonging, are to be replaced by a non-dramatized, quiet, and almost unnoticeable inward alignment. The days of external spiritual form have passed. The living spirit is now to be carried quietly, and with dignity, within the human vessel. This is the merger that brings life on earth closer to the spiritualization of matter. The new epoch we are moving into is not one that is to be defined through outer forms but through inward fluidity. This is the Quiet Path.
The intelligence needed now within humankind is one that grasps not the dry intellect but steers inner thoughts towards development of the spirit-consciousness. Intelligence is not something a person has but rather something they use. And the question revolves around how these uses are employed. A person of negative intent can be extremely intelligent and use this for destructive or damaging purposes. The energy of consciousness can be utilized in various ways. Humanity are the vessels for the employment of universal energies, and it would serve us well to recognize this. That is why we are seeing now a huge push for the implementation of AI (machinic intellect) as this opens up a different evolutionary stream and possibilities – possibilities that deny the expansion of human intelligence through spirit-consciousness. However, to not recognize, or acknowledge, that metaphysical events are in operation around us at all times, only gives sustenance to the ‘hardening effect’ of materialism and the entropic forces. It is this hardening within modern life that we must be particularly aware of. This process affects the senses, the perceptive faculties, and the sensitivity to receptivity. An energetic, vibrational hardening or densification, so to speak, creates a blockage for contact with developmental impulses. This is where the path of human will and free choice comes in.
The path of free choice brings with it the responsibility to make those choices. Free choice also means that an individual has the freedom to choose to align with the darker elements, as well as choosing to serve the developmental forces. There may be greater risks in this degree of flexibility, yet choosing to serve without being compelled also accelerates the impulses of development. As it is said, freedom without choice is meaningless. With every step taken towards freedom, a person also gets closer to the darker aspects, for they must be confronted, and a choice made (known as the temptation). The more a person follows the path of freedom, the more they will be confronted with the ‘temptations.’ And by choosing against the temptations (or darker aspects), so is the freedom more whole and complete. The very presence of the entropic, chaotic counterforces gives the choice to align with the path of evolvement greater weight. In other words, the choice of freedom is its fullest when chosen against an opposition to it. Each new temptation can serve to strengthen the presence of spirit-consciousness according to the choices and actions made. Without opposition, a choice carries less weight. And life, we are constantly reminded, does not take place within a vacuum. If this has not been fully appreciated before, then now is certainly the time for its realization. As Rudolf Steiner said in 1908:
The good would not be so great a good if it were not to grow through the conquest of evil. Love would not be so intense if it had not to become love so great as to be able even to overcome the wickedness in the countenance of evil men … You must not think that evil has no part in the plan of creation. It is there in order that through it may come the greater good.1
Life is an amalgam of forces, and their interplay through creation and destruction – order and chaos – creates form and movement. By having the choice of movement, we also accept the responsibility of having to leave things behind once their time is done. Furthermore, momentum requires friction (again, the absence of a vacuum). It is because so few people have the awareness of such processes that there exists a meta-history of those events and processes that have been operating behind the scenes of everyday life. What we generally know of as history, as socio-cultural life, is the shaking of the leaves; what we are unaware of is the wind that blows through the tree.
The entropic, chaotic forces understand the laws of evolutionary development, which means that they cannot oppose them directly but instead they have to move within these currents and try to distort them – to give them a wrong direction, to slow them down or speed them up. That is why we have deception, hidden power, and trickery within our systems as these are the means whereby such forces can project their influence and manifest their power. Yet they cannot act directly, for to do so would be against natural universal laws. They act through duplicity. And, in general, people validate such actions and events through sheer ignorance of the deceit enacted against them. Often, this ignorance is solidified by attachments to lower sensory impacts, influences, and desires. The human is capable of developing their higher faculties through overcoming lower sensate attachments. Some of the people who unleash great tragedies are influenced by occult forces; they bear this responsibility.
Likewise, those individuals capable of aligning with positive, constructive metaphysical forces must also bear this responsibility. However, a distinction in these positions should be made. We should desist from ‘doing battle’ with such negating forces in our physical life, for then we are engaging with them on their playing field – on their energetic level. Beyond the physical, there are ‘events’ taking place unknown to us (the metaphysical forces are aware of the darker occult forces). For us, the responsibility is to gain awareness of the environment in which we are developing the human condition. Human beings do not exist in a neutral environment. Having awareness of those impulses and influences that constitute this environment is critical if we are to have a clarity of perception. Yet being aware of such things does not mean that we need to engage with them. In many instances, we are to observe and, if possible, gain insight into how such interventions and negating influences attempt to sway us. As Rudolf Steiner states: ‘If only enough people would have the impulse today to say: we have first of all to gain insight into these things, the rest will follow!’2 What is necessary is to cultivate a right relation to the things of this manifested world.
Our regular senses are unable to penetrate very far beyond external appearances. That is why people live within a surface, or superficial, layer of experience. And this layer is very deceiving for it is being continuously penetrated by those forces and influences beyond physical perception. The vying forces of chaos and order are not recognized for what they are. Instead, such aspects are often misrepresented as being either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ despite the necessity for such forces to push and pull against one another. Too much of one, and there would be stillness, inertia, and stagnation. Too much of the other, and there would be uncontrolled fluidity and fluctuation. There needs to be a blending. As the mystic-philosopher Gurdjieff said: ‘The higher blends with the lower to actualize the middle.’ Most people are unaware of how these forces operate, let alone that they exist as they do within manifested reality. For this reason, individuals can benefit from acquiring a degree of self-knowledge; otherwise, those with the capacity to comprehend the forces of chaos and order will be driven by outer impulses that they are internally unaware of. The transmutation that faces humankind offers a great potential for moving ahead upon the celestial arc, where the forces of chaos and order play their part for the benefit of evolutionary goals. The more that humanity steps forward upon this path, the more is learnt and understood about the cosmic playing field that constitutes the arena of our lives.
References
1 Rudolf Steiner, a lecture from June 25th, 1908 (GA 104) – https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA104/English/APC1958/19080625p01.html
2 Rudolf Steiner, a lecture from December 12th, 1918 (GA 186) – https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/19181212p01.html
