After the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the temple is opened for spiritual man and we share in the actions of the twenty four elders around God’s throne. For the first time we are allowed a glimpse at what was hidden in the Holy of holiest, the ark. The ark is for the Jewish people a case, prepared of acacia wood, and covered at the outside and inside with leaf-gold (see for example Graham Hancock’s ‘The Sign and The Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant’,1992, Heinemann Publ.). The ark is an awe-inspiring object. He that took it in possession in an improper way was hit by disease and death, as the Philistines experienced when they had captured the ark (1 Samuel). Two golden cherubs stand on the golden cover, and between them a shining glow appears when God is present.

The take-over of power in our world

The seventh trumpet is the start of the take-over of power by Christ in the total cosmos, in all kingdoms of the world. This is the counterpart of his dominion of the kingdoms in heaven. When satan tempts Jesus by promising him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, if he falls on his knees and worships him (Matthew 4: 1-11), it reveals that satan is the ruler of the world. Also in the gospel of John, satan is called several times the ruler of the cosmos. At the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the whole of the cosmos is snatched away from satan. Christ, who’s kingdom is not of this world, now becomes also ruler of this world.  

The hymn of thanksgiving by the elders

The twenty four elders sing a hymn of thanksgiving to the ruler, which was and which is. His title now is no longer ‘and which is to come’. For, time no longer exists, future no longer exists. The coming of the Christ is no longer future, but present. The choir of the twenty four elders sang one time earlier, at the actual start of the Apocalypse when the Lamb opened the seals of the book. This indicates that we have reached the heart, the middle of the Apocalypse. The elders will sing a third time, but then we are nearing the end of the book (Rev.19:4).

The opening of the Holy of holiest in the temple

At this point, the Holy of holiest of the temple is opened.                                                       We have seen that the seven letters to the communities represent the outer court of the temple and guide us along the outer history. The opening of the seals in the Seal epoch give entry to the inner court where are both pillars of Joachim and Boaz and the sea of glass, carried by the twelve cattle. Imaginations reveal to us the beings of the seven planets (Schult, p.174). The seals can be called the book of destiny. This is the realm of the astral world. The sacrificial altar shown at the fifth seal reflects the great offering altar in the inner court of the temple. At the end of the Seal epoch the physical world is dissolved.

With the Trumpet epoch, we enter the sanctuary of the temple. We hear in the sounding of the trumpets the harmony of the spheres of the stars, the world of the creative ideas. The seven trumpets can be called the book of stars and archetypes. More and more powerful is the solar spirit of Christ revealed in the human soul as the I. The feeling forces of the heart are purified and transformed. At the end of the Trumpet epoch the etheric world is also dissolved.

The sounding of the seventh trumpet makes the curtain, that hangs before the Holy of holiest, tear up. As a result the vials of wrath, filled with divine will power, will become visible, as is  the ark. The ark in the Holy of holiest represents the heaven of fire of God, as well as the divine spark in man. Images and sounds are left behind, here in the Holy of holiest, man can directly experience God by an intuitive unification of being, of man with God. But at the same moment this unification becomes a judgement. Jakob Bohme says on this: ‘It is God’s love which reveals itself in the prism of the dark element as God’s wrath, as digesting fire.’ All filth is consumed in this divine fire, all death abilities in man are made alive again. During the phase of the vials of wrath, to be described later, also the astral world will be dissolved. The vials of wrath can be seen as the book of divine life, in which heaven and earth unite again.  

The upbeat for the third woe

Schult (p.171) remembers us of the fact that the blowing of the seventh trumpet means on one side the height of the Trumpet epoch, and the opening of the Holy of holiest, but it is also the upbeat for the third woe, which is revealed in the next fragments, where the most violent demonic forces will step forward.