[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

confronts a man from the spiritual world (and this applies also to one who is receiving
wrongful training) appears to him as an astral form visible to the astral body, the
manifestations due to the influence of Ahriman are brought to light in that the evil
influences on the physical body press through into the etheric body and then become
visible as phantoms.
In the influences of Ahriman, therefore, we have to do with powers of a much lower
nature than the influences of Lucifer. Lucifer's influences can never become as evil as the
influences of Ahriman and of those Beings who are connected with the powers of fire.
The influence of Ahriman or Mephistopheles can bring it about that in order to attain
occult knowledge a man is induced, for example, to undertake certain measures with his
physical body. The method that consists in the use and misuse of the physical body is the
most evil that can possibly be applied for the purpose of acquiring occult powers. It is a
fact that in certain school of black magic such practices are taught in abundance. One of
the most terrible perversions to which man may be subject occurs when the forces of the
physical body are taken as the starting-point for occult training.
It is not possible here to enter into closer detail than the indication that all machinations
consisting in any way of a misuse of the forces of the physical body emanate from the
influences of Ahriman; and because the effect of this penetrates into man's etheric body,
it works as a world of phantoms that is nothing else than the garment of powers which
drag man down to a level below that of true manhood. Nearly every ancient civilization -
the Indian, the Persian, the Egyptian, the Greco-Latin - had its period of decadence; so
too the Mysteries, when the Mystery-traditions were no longer preserved in their purity.
During these periods many of those who were either pupils of the Initiates but unable to
remain at their level or men to whom the secrets of the Mysteries had been unlawfully
betrayed, had fallen into perverse and evil paths. Centers of black magic and its forces
originated from these influences and have persisted to this day.
Ahriman is a spirit of lies, a spirit who conjures illusions before men, working together
with his confederates in a spiritual world. Ahriman himself is no mirage - far from it! But
what is conjured before men's eyes of spirit under his influence - that is mirage, illusion.
When a man's desires and passions flow along evil paths and at the same time he lends
himself in any way to occult practices, then the occult forces which are awakened
penetrate into the etheric body and the most evil powers of corruption appear among the
illusory images which may themselves often be majestic, awe-inspiring. Such is the
terrible influence of Ahriman upon man.
From what has been said you can gather that through Christ's Coming, Ahriman has been
cast into fetters - if this expression may be used - but only, of course, for those who
endeavor unceasingly to fathom the Christ-Mystery. And outside the forces streaming
from the Christ-Mystery, protection in the world against the influence of Ahriman will
steadily diminish. In a certain sense - and many signs proclaim it - our epoch courts these
influences of Ahriman. In certain occult teachings the hosts of Ahriman are also called
the Asuras. These are of course, the evil Asuras who at a certain time fell away from the
evolutionary path of the Asuras who endowed man with personality. It has already been
indicated that these are spiritual Beings who detached themselves from the evolution of
the earth before the separation of the sun.
Up to now we have been describing merely the terrible influence that Ahriman can
exercise upon a certain abnormal process of development, one that proceeds along occult
paths. But in a certain respect the whole of mankind came under the influence of
Ahriman during the second half of the Atlantean epoch. The whole Post-Atlantean epoch
has within it, in a certain sense, the aftermath of Ahriman's influence - in one region of
the earth more, in another less. But Ahriman's influence has asserted itself everywhere [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]