Every now and then we are reminded of our fragility and our ego’s faults. We experience the pain of losing someone close to us, or of not having done enough. Not long ago I read, or I should say reread Rudolph Steiners “An esoteric Cosmology, lecture 8”. http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19060601p01.html

Many of these lectures truly must sink in. Here is a perfect example of how esoteric knowledge comes to life in the soul. Some other time let met explain whatever the soul is, or is thought to be, but for now lets think of it as the tingling awareness of being a person in this world. Contemplating the seven stages of Christian initiation, we then come to a profound understanding of who we can become in this world. We may consider these stages to be the steps on life’s ladder, the steps we are standing on overlooking our own reality.

These 7 stages are

1) The washing of the feet
2) The scourging
3) The crowning with thorns
4) The bearing of the cross
5) The mystic death
6) The entombment
7) The ressurection

The first one of course is the feeling of being humble.
The second is realizing our suffering, morally, physically etc..
The third means the horrifying side of willing, feeling and thinking in their extreem forms potentially driving you insane. The thorns being the symbol of sin.
The fourth is the burden of carying the weight of the world, your responsabilities, on your shoulders
The fifth, the realization that the world of the senses is an illusion
The sixth, being free from our body
The seventh, the creative word from the soul aflame, one may have the power to heal but also one can cause sickness.

Looking around you, you will discover more and more people living their lives in one or more of these 7 realms of consciousness. Rarely however you will meet someone in the last two stages. I wonder, why would that be?