People of the Future
There are two main lines of possible development:
- People of the present, whose foundation is the 10-petalled lotus (the solar plexus) as well as research in science and humanities.
- People of the Future, whose Soul foundation is the 6-petalled lotus (the sacral), develops with regard to the task of karmic research.
Gnosis and revelation form the two fundamental elements. In the Meditations, these elements are explained in the High Priestess card:
gnosis is exactly what the Card of the High Priestess expresses both in its entirety and in its details, namely the descent of revelation … gnosis is mysticism which has become conscious of itself. It is mystical experience transformed into higher knowledge.
The people of the future will have the advantage of physical health:
For the people of the future, physical health is as important as mental hygiene and spiritual work. These people of Manas culture (called, in the Apocalypse, the community of Philadelphia) will be very healthy, which will be expressed in an absolute harmony of all internal organs. … these people of the future will show themselves bright, refreshing, healthy.
In the Meditations, Tomberg agrees with this understanding of the chakra. The solar plexus chakra is related to science and the sacral chakra to harmony and health. However, when these lotuses are guided by the 12-petaled lotus of the heart, they become transformed:
- The science of the ten-petalled lotus will then become conscience, i.e. the servant of God and neighbour.
- The six-petalled lotus, the centre of health, will become that of holiness, i.e. harmony between spirit, soul and body.
Manas Culture
According to Steiner, the Manas culture is a future development in which the teachings of Buddha and Christ will unite. He also foresaw a “Mercury culture” related to the Buddha stream.
However, in the discussion of the Bodhisattva in the Meditations, we see that Tomberg agrees partially, but shows that Buddha’s teaching is subservient to Christ’s revelation:
In Jesus Christ we have the perfect union of divine revelation and the purest humanism. Which means to say that not only all Avatars but also all Buddhas of the past and of the future are summarised in Jesus Christ —being the Logos made flesh, and his Humanity having realised the most complete awakening of all that which is of divine essence in human nature. For Jesus Christ is the revelation that God is love, and he bears witness that the essence of human nature is love. And can one conceive of, can one imagine, anything more divine than love and anything more human than love? For this reason, all Avatars (including all prophets and all Imams) and all Buddhas (including all sages, all initiates and all Boddhisattvas) were, are, and will be only degrees and aspects of the divine revelation and the human awakening realised in Jesus Christ.
We might add, at this point, that Mercury is equivalent to Hermes, whose mother is Maia; hence the Mercury culture is more likely the Hermetic tradition as adopted by Tomberg. (Mercury is Budha in Sanskrit, not to be confused with Buddha.)
The Three Flashes
If the heart is weak, that is, if one is not centred in the Heart, then the harmony of the 6-petaled lotus is not consciously understood. Instead, it will impose itself in one of three flashes:
- The first flash brings about the fruitlessness of the sexes in the mineral body.
- The second flash brings very severe stomach disturbances, even cramps, through which the solar plexus causes excitement in the etheric body as well as the soul.
- The third flash strikes the head. It causes the loss of consciousness by tearing the etheric body out of the epiphysis, the pineal gland, the organ of the 8 petalled lotus, and fainting occurs.
Harmony of the Soul Functions
Most people are centred primarily in one of the centres associated with Thinking, Feeling, and Willing (or desire, concupiscence). That distorts how they see and experience the world. Moreover, it opens them up to the influence of infernal forces. Those centred on Thinking will become cold and lack will. Those centred on Feeling will react emotionally to persons, things, and events, thus obscuring from them the Truth. Those centred on the gut will be dominated by lust, greed, gluttony.
Training in the path of the Heart aims for the thinking, feeling, and willing functions to be animated by the Higher Self. Then there can be gradual improvement:
- Thinking and Feeling: Positivity
- Thinking and Willing: Impartiality
- Thinking, Willing, and Feeling: Harmony
Commentary on sections ST1/1 to ST1/3 of Chakra Werk by Willi Seiß.