In the third great vision after the outpouring of the seventh vial, we hear four times voices saying: Alleluia!’ The jubilant tone of the third great vision contrast strongly with the downfall of Babylon in the previous one. Schult (p.296) recognizes in this festivity the colorfulness of the purified astral being of the divine virgin Sophia, of man and Earth. The first two times we hear the ‘Alleluia!’ refer to God, who judged the whore and to the smoke of Babylon rising up from aeons to aeons. Next we hear the twenty four elders and the four throne beings thanking God for taking up his kingship. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him the divine glory; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. And to her is granted a garment of white and fine linen, for this garment of fine linen is the body of resurrection of the saints. And the voice of an angel asks John to write down the words that sound. Write: Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb! These are the true words of God!  When John falls at his feet to worship the angel, he is again forbidden to do so as he should worship God alone.  

  

The jubilation of luciferic angels

Steiner (GA 346, p.158) attributes the first two Alleluia’s to luciferic angels who are enjoyed by the fall of ahrimanic Babylon. Bock is of the same opinion. These luciferic angels aim at the failure of the marriage between spirit and matter, as foreseen in mankind, and fight against the materialistic kingdom of Ahriman. Steiner warns for the often occurring misconception that opposite to the evil principle, that is working from beneath, there is a good principle, that is working from above. But that is not how reality is structured, as this great vision shows. Ahriman works from beneath, grabbing light like a black hole, and from above works Lucifer as a wizzard showing us a world of illusionary beauty. The Christ-principle balances both impulses.  Christ is the true light, verus Lucifer.

The three choirs

Schult (p.297) does not refer to luciferic angels in his explanation of this text fragment. He points at the three angelic choirs. The first choir praises the judgement of the Father god, who has judged Babylon. This is the world of truth and justice which is eternal, contrary to hell which knows time-bound justice.  

The second choir of the twenty four elders and the four throne beings stands around the Son god, the Lamb, later appearing as the white horseman. Together with the Sophia, they are called in the old gnosis the 30 aeons, representing the fullness of the ‘divine pleroma’.

Subsequently, a mysterious voice from the throne invites a third choir: And a voice came out of the throne, saying: Praise our God, all you servants, and you that fear him, both small and great! In this choir angels and men sing together, uniting heaven and earth. All these sounds represent a indescribable force and a super-sensuous brawling power. The third choir announces the kingship of the Christ over the whole of the cosmos. The wedding of the Lamb with the heavenly bride, the virgin Sophia, is come. This is the triumphant song of the Holy Spirit. Time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is near, as announced so often in the New Testament.    

The bride

The virgin Sophia, who has prepared herself for the wedding, is a figure with many meanings (Schult, p.303). At this place in the Apocalypse, she is the counter-image of the whore of Babylon, representing the purified cosmos. But she is also the cosmic mother giving birth to the Christ-child. And at the end of the Earth incarnation she becomes the holy city of God, the new Jerusalem. Sophia, with Sun, Moon and stars as her radiating aura, is symbol for the purified spiritual cosmos at the end of the development of the world.