Year One...

...of a Nine Year Novena

Dear Friends,

My friend Sam Guzman, who some of you may know from his offerings at The Way of the Heart, suggested to me a few months back that we are living in a significant time period, between the Divine Mercy eclipse on April 8, 2024 and Easter, 2033—the 2000 year anniversary of the Mystery of Golgotha. He noticed that this was a nine-year period, and that the number nine is significant in Catholic mysticism and sacred practice, particularly in the Novena, a nine-day prayer towards a specific devotion or request. He characterized the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost as the archetypal Novena, during which the disciples felt the emptiness of the loss of their Lord, and found the fulfillment of this emptiness on Whitsun, with the descent of the Holy Spirit via the Virgin Mary.

He brought to me the image that in these nine years, perhaps we are living in a kind of extended version of those nine days between Ascension and Pentecost, and that we could collectively turn our hearts and minds to some spiritual content that could carry us through this time.

I suggested to him that we work with the Nine Beatitudes, another archetypal ninefoldness from the Gospels. I have taken excerpts from Valentin Tomberg’s “Lord’s Prayer Course”, as well as his later work Thy Kingdom Come, and divided them into nine meditations for each of the nine beatitudes (81 meditations total). The rhythm within each year that Sam suggested we work with is that of nine successive “First Fridays” (the origin of this devotion is described fully here): a new meditation will be sent out on the first Friday of the month, starting with the first Friday after Whitsun (which is today!).

Therefore, in this first year of 2024-25, we can focus our mind, heart, and will on the First Beatitude: Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Robert Powell has described the journey of Christ’s Ego through the nine Hierarchies, to Earth, and into the sub-earthly layers over the course of the past 160+ years. We might imagine this nine year period as a concentrated version of that longer journey. We might call to mind that this First Beatitude is related to the first layer of the sub-earthly, the crust of the Earth. Christ penetrated this layer between 1933-45. It is the mirror reflection of the sphere of Angels above the human being, in which Christ dwelt between 1920-32: the whole historical drama of 1920-45 could live within us during this year, as well as the significant spiritual developments that unfolded during this time through individuals like Rudolf Steiner and Valentin Tomberg. Christ will re-emerge through this sphere beginning in 2135, returning to the realm of Angels in the 2140’s. We also turn our intentions to this future blessing for humanity.

The first step in our meditations on the First Beatitude comes from Robert Powell’s translation of the Lord’s Prayer Course, available on the Sophia Foundation’s website as pdf (soon to be available in a single volume in print from the decades-long labor of James Wetmore!).

Many blessings to you all,

Joel Matthew Park

Let our meditative work be like a lemniscate (a figure 8). The middle of the figure 8 is the 12-petalled lotus flower (the heart chakra). The top of the figure 8 is the 8-petalled lotus flower, and the bottom is the 4-petalled lotus flower. Morality streams from the 12-petalled lotus flower in the region of the heart into the 8-petalled lotus flower, streaming above to the Father. And then again through the heart down below to the 4-petalled lotus flower in order to fulfill and to unite with the Mother (Life) and to fertilize her with thoughts, to beget from the Spirit. Thus one comes to a twofold stream of prayer: the Our Father directed above, and the Our Mother directed below; the first revivifying death and the second spiritualizing life.

This lays the foundation for the entire work. It is a matter of activating this twofold stream of prayer: the Our Father from the heart (12-petalled lotus) above via the crown chakra (8-petalled lotus) directed to the Father, and the Our Mother from the heart down via the root chakra (4-petalled lotus) directed to the Mother. The 8-petalled lotus, related to the planet Saturn, is the lotus flower of death, and the 4-petalled lotus, related to the Moon, is the lotus flower of life. Here the words, “Our Father, who art in heaven” are complemented by the words, “Our Mother, thou who art in the heart of the earthly realm.”

Rudolf Steiner once had a conversation concerning Shamballa with Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk. There Rudolf Steiner referred to the golden land of Shamballa at the heart of the Earth. To reach this kingdom of the Divine Mother, however, one has to pass through demonic influences. According to Rudolf Steiner: “If one passes through them together with Christ, then the demons are unable to harm one, but otherwise they would be able to destroy one! However, they are able to become our helpers. Yes, this is so. The path is right, but it is very difficult!” This is a reference to the nine sub-earthly spheres inserted between humanity and the kingdom of the Divine Mother. With the nine Beatitudes spoken by Christ at the Sermon on the Mount, nine formulae were given to humanity containing the Christian impulses to counteract the demonic influence of each of the nine sub-earthly spheres. Armed with the nine Beatitudes the means are given for passing through the demonic influences together with Christ. In fact, the nine Beatitudes are part of the School of the Greater Guardian, Jesus Christ.

“Hallowed be thy name”: the spiritualizing of our three bodily sheaths, our three soul natures, and our three spiritual members is the hallowing of thy name. Not only do we lift up our souls to God but the name will be said. The nine Beatitudes are an indication that each spiritualization of a part of the human being is a blessing (Beatitude).

The nine members of the human being:

the three bodily sheaths: physical, etheric, and astral bodies

the three soul natures: sentient, intellectual, and consciousness souls

the three spiritual members: manas, buddhi, and atma

First Beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

We can consider this Beatitude in connection with the most meaningful occurrence of being “poor in spirit,” namely, Jesus at the Baptism in the Jordan. This is described in all four Gospels.

Consider this in connection with Master Jesus (Zarathustra), whose spirit dwelt in the body of the Nathan Jesus for almost 18 years prior to the Baptism. He came to pour out his heart to his Mother prior to the Baptism, and in doing so achieved Emptiness of the Head, or Wisdom—[this in the sense of the first of the four Platonic Virtues: Wisdom, Courage, Temperance, and Justice. Elsewhere in the Lord’s Prayer Course, Valentin Tomberg associates Wisdom with the Crown, Brow, and Larynx chakras, and with the three priestly vows of Obedience, Chastity, and Poverty respectively. These three vows, when practiced together, become Wisdom. See the 4th, 5th, and 6th Letters from Meditations on the Tarot for a fuller investigation of the three vows.—JMP]

He was wholly empty – the greatest of the “poor in spirit.”

(For a full description of this, see Rudolf Steiner’s Fifth Gospel, lectures 4 & 5).

In the Fifth Gospel, Jesus is described as having experienced three things:

1) The silence of the Bath-Kol.

2) The mysteries forsaken by the gods and possessed by demons. (His own mysteries, i.e. those which he had given in the past as Zarathustra, he found to be totally decadent).

3) Although there was much beautiful and good in the Essene community, the Essenes lived only for themselves and sent forth the two tempters of humanity, Lucifer and Ahriman, among human beings.

Nothing remained for Jesus, and in total emptiness he went to the Baptism in the Jordan.