The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

St. Louis Exorcism 247
At 40, Steiner felt he was ready to speak publicly about
his spiritual philosophy, his clairvoyant experiences, and
what he learned from them. By this time, he had gained
much experience in the nonphysical realms through profound
meditation. He said that at one time humankind
was more spiritual and possessed supernormal capabilities
but lost them on the descent to the material plane.
At the lowest point of human descent, JESUS arrived and
provided the opportunity to reascend to higher spiritual
levels. For Steiner, the life, death, and Resurrection of
Christ were the most important events in the history of
humankind and the cosmos. However, the Gospels did
not contain the complete story.
Steiner envisioned humanity as following a path of
higher consciousness, guided by ANGELs, intelligences,
and a host of spiritual beings. One of the most important
is the archangel Michael, who guides the way to cosmic
enlightenment, through which humanity will respiritualize
the earth.
The old Christian spirituality will fall apart. Without
a new spiritual vision, humanity will be overpowered and
numbed by technology. Higher beings will help humanity
form the new spiritual vision by sending impulses, but
only if humans ask for help and cooperate. Meanwhile,
Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings—forces of darkness and
chaos—will constantly challenge angelic forces in human
thought, sense, and will, thus making it crucial to learn a
discerning spiritual science.
Steiner remarked in a lecture on April 4, 1912, that
without new spiritual impulses, technology will not only
dominate our outer life, but overpower and numb us. It
will drive out the religious, philosophical, artistic, and
ethical interests and turn us into “living automata.” Many
people today, even highly educated ones, are already
unwitting slaves of outer material conditions, he said.
FALLEN ANGELS—active in the information and computer
technologies and economic networks—spread evil over
the earth through racism and nationalism, though their
approach is so subtle and intimate that people think they
are not influenced by them.
Luciferic and Ahrimanic Beings
Steiner called beings that encourage destruction through
vices Luciferic spirits. Still other spirits wish people to remain
mired in a materialistic, mechanistic world. These
spirits Steiner called “Ahrimanic” beings, after AHRIMAN,
the Persian personification of evil. He links LUCIFER with
air and warmth, and Ahriman with earth and cold. The
changes of seasons reveal the eternal struggle between
the two forces.
Steiner faced serious inner battles with evil forces and
felt that his ultimate victory over them was his immersion
in the esoteric mysteries of Christ. He warned that the
spiritual path to higher consciousness entails such battles.
He noted that people strongly resist taking responsibility
to fight on the inner plane, preferring to project the
battle out onto imagined enemies. Every thousand years
as a new millennium approaches, Luciferic and Ahrimanic
beings make particularly strong attacks on human
progress. Our fear and projections make us increasingly
susceptible to spiritual debasement, mental slavery, and
mass hysteria.
Steiner thought that the greatest challenge of the modern
age is to understand the polarity between Lucifer and
Ahriman. Modern consciousness understands the polarity
between God and the DEVIL and heaven and HELL. To
strive toward either extreme is not good. Humanity must
find balance in the middle.
Chaos, in which Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces participate,
is necessary for human evolution, but highly antisocial.
Steiner’s commitment to “higher civility” spurred
his reappraisal of human relations. At Dornach, a sculpture
shows the Representative of Man standing between
Lucifer and Ahriman. People can achieve this balance by
paying attention to those who have educated, befriended,
and even injured them. Steiner said on October 10, 1916,
that, as a rule, people do not encounter anyone they have
not met in previous incarnations. Likes and dislikes are
great enemies of real social relations. Condemning a person
obliterates a karmic relationship entirely, postponing
it to a next incarnation, and no progress can be made.
Steiner explains that Ahrimanic beings are highly intelligent,
extraordinarily clever, and wise. They act behind
the veil of nature and work to destroy the human
physical organism by fomenting destruction and hatred.
Sensuous urges and impulses are enhanced. They replace
thinking by all kinds of lower organism powers, especially
the impulse to lie.
The Luciferic beings do everything to foster egoism
within people and a passion for creating and bringing
things into existence. Steiner insists that future evolution
will be endangered if the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings
are not recognized and counteracted by spiritual science.
See SORATH.
FURTHER READING:
McDermott, Robert A., ed. The Essential Steiner. San Francisco:
Harper & Row, 1984.
Sheperd, A. P. Rudolf Steiner: Scientist of the Invisible. 1954.
Reprint, Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions International,
1983.
Steiner, Rudolf. An Autobiography. New trans. Blauvelt, N.Y.:
Rudolf Steiner, 1977.
———. The Four Seasons and the Archangels. Bristol, England:
Rudolf Steiner Press, 1992.
———. Planetary Spheres and Their Influence on Man’s Life on
Earth and in the Spiritual Worlds. London: Rudolf Steiner
Press, 1982.
St. Louis Exorcism (1949) Complex POSSESSION case that
inspired the novel and movie The Exorcist, variously interpreted
as one of demonic possession, POLTERGEIST activity,
and delusion. Many of the details of the case remain secret,
and all of the principal EXORCISTs involved in it have died.