At the 40th text fragment we arrive at the eighth beam (or beam zero) in the spiral, the place of transition to the next higher consciousness level and where the next cycle starts. The glow of God’s glory comes flowing to us. The intuitive world is awaiting us.

Earlier, the seven letters to the communities brought us at the outer court of the temple. The seven seals represented the inner court. The seven trumpets lead us the way through the sanctuary of the temple and after the sounding of the seventh trumpet we could see into the Holy of holiest of the temple. Seven vials of wrath are now brought from this Holy of holiest to the outside. We cannot yet enter into the Holy of holiest, the world of intuition, before the angels have poured out these seven vials of divine willpower. And nobody was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angles were fulfilled.   

Truth, love and justice

The seven vials of divine willpower prepare man for the ascension of mount Sion, for the unification with God, later described as the new Jerusalem (Schult, p.262). God’s love appears as divine wrath in the world of illusion, according to Steiner (GA 346, p.217). The wrath of God becomes visible where the truth of God is replaced by a world of illusions and when these illusions are worshipped. Only God is worthy to be worshipped. But God does not know wrath in himself. His compassion has no limits. That is why also Jacob Bohme stated: ‘It is God’s love which in the prism of the dark element appears as God’s wrath, as an annihilating fire’ (see Schult, p.237).

We saw how the physical world ascends to the etheric world after the seventh seal. After the seventh trumpet the etheric world ascends to the astral world. In the outpouring of the seven vials of God’s willpower the astral world is overcome and elevated  to the mental world of the pure divine spirit. We experience in the seals the purification of our thoughts, in the trumpets the refining of our feelings and in the vials of wrath the purification of our will impulses. The corresponding color for the seals is white, for the trumpets is red, and for the vials of wrath it is black (Schult, p.262). White is the color of the light of the spirit, red is the color of the fire of the soul and black belongs to the earthly physical body.

During the progression of the Apocalypse, it becomes increasingly difficult for the light to penetrate the darkness of the further compressing matter. In the cycle of the seals, we see the light come through at the fifth seal when the martyrs are given a white robe. The light of Michael overcomes the forces of darkness when the sixth trumpet sounds. And in the cycle of the vials of wrath, the bride Sophia is clothed with a light garment only after the seventh vial has been poured out. The progressing darkening of matter, spiritually spoken, is simultaneously accompanied by a progressing liberation of the spirit. On the road from purifying our thinking to purifying our feeling and willing, in the ascension from the truth, to the beauty and the good, we expand from the mind to the wider qualities of love and justice. In this way we near the divine Sophia, the world of the Holy Spirit in God.

Insurmountable contrasts can arise in the human consciousness between truth, love and justice, but in the experience of God’s mercy man can overcome all contrasts. The closer man is nearing God, the more God’s nearness becomes an annihilating fire for all faintheartedness in man (Schult, p.264).  The cycle of the vials of wrath brings the heaviest trials for man.

The smoke of Gods glow of glory  

The seven angels, having white robes and their breasts girded with golden girdles, stride  forward out of the Holy of holiest of the temple.  And one of the four animal-like beings gave to the seven angels seven golden vials, overflowing of the willpower of God, who lives from aeons to aeons. And the temple filled itself with the smoke of Gods glow of glory and his almight. The incense like smoke is radiated from the aurora of God. The same smoke was perceived by Isaiah (Isaiah 6:4) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 10:3) during their initiation.