Frequently asked questions
Is the John Apocalypse the only one of its kind?
The book tells of a spiritually cosmic view of man that was still common in classical cultures, but was fading at the time of the beginning of our era and has become even less accessible to us, without going down an inner path of development. Similar elements can also be found in the Jewish ‘Kabbalah’, which means tradition, whose roots go back to the same time as the Apocalypse was born. At the base of the Kabbalah were three Talmudists, the Rabbis Nechunjah ben Hakana (lived about 75 A.D.), Ismael ben Elisa (about 130 A.D.) and especially Simeon ben Jochai (about 150 A.D.). Simeon ben Jochai is considered to be the founder of one of the most important cabalistic books, the Zohar (Müller, 1982). The Kabbalah will therefore help the reader of the Apocalypse to gain more understanding. Clifford, Hultgard and Martínez also show in the book Apocalypticism (2003), edited by McGinn, Collins and Stein, that the apocalyptic elements can also be found in other cultures in the Middle East, such as Egypt and Persia.
Why 56 text fragments in a spiral form?
The deviating division into 56 fragments is motivated by the desire to always follow the structure indicated by the number 7. Thus the seven epistles, the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven temperament scales form the fixed skeleton of this division. They then unlock the eighth step that is formed by the fragments in which John appears before God’s throne and may look at what is happening in higher levels of consciousness. Thus the 7 + 1 = 8 rays, which shine through the Apocalypse from the centre, become visible, while the 8ste ray is actually not a time ray, but a look through to eternity. The 8stesteradius stands for, free from Egmond, that without the blessing of God the new cycle cannot begin.
Furthermore, the columns in the original Greek text, as described by Lohmeyer (1953) among others, are used to distinguish the inner coherence between the fragments.
Because of the spiral arrangement of the text fragments of the Apocalypse, part of the meaning of the text image is already revealed from the position in the spiral.
What is known about the author of the Apocalypse?
The author of the Apocalypse has made himself known as John. Although not all writers share the opinion, from the earliest Christianity onwards a large majority (see Bock, 1982; Schult, 1976) agrees that the author of the Apocalypse is the same as the evangelist John ‘who loved Jesus’. John calls himself by that name from the moment Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Some see this as an indication that the spirit of John the Baptist has been working in the disciple and Apocalypse writer from that moment on (e.g. Von Halle, 2017).
John was the only one of the twelve disciples present at the crucifixion of Jesus. After the crucifixion and resurrection he worked with the disciples Peter and James to spread the gospel. After the year 67, after the death of Jesus’ mother Mary and the martyrdom of Paul, he settled in Ephesus to continue the work of Paul. The rudiments of the community of Christian Jews in Ephesus are still present. The old John was captured during the persecutions under Emperor Domitian (81-96) in Ephesus, taken to Rome for interrogation and torture and banished to the island of Pathos. During his captivity he received his revelation. The small island of Patmos is now actually in the hands of the Greek Orthodox Church, which has built dozens of monasteries, churches and chapels there. An intimate church has also been built around the cave where John received his revelations, which can be visited daily.
The cave of John on Patmos and the curvature in the wall, protected by a fence, where he would have laid his head to rest and got his visions.
According to Steiner (1911-1912), John the Evangelist returned in a later life as Christian Rosencreutz, the founder of the Rosicrucian movement, which offers a Christian way of initiating modern man.
What's special about the number 7?
The number seven is the number of time. Each development takes place in seven steps. Everything possible is arranged according to the number seven (3 + 4). The seven refers to the transition from the divine world (number 3) to the material world (number 4). The 7 is more important in the Apocalypse than the twelve (3 x 4), which is the number of space. The alphabet has 7 vowels as creative forces, including the Greek alpha and omega. Also colours and tones are composed of seven. The 7 determines the order and inspiration that lives in the world Al. You have to learn to live in seven so that you can understand the inspiration and from any point in time by means of multiples of seven you can explain the events. Human communities also have only 7 nuances (Steiner, 1924). That is why seven letters are sent to the seven congregations of the Apocalypse. There are no other forms of community.
Number of the dynamic completion
Seven is also the symbol for completing a certain development or cycle. For example, in the seven creation days, the seventh is the day of rest. Then the work is finished. However, if on the seventh day the Saint is not present, and blesses everything, the new cycle cannot begin. On this website this moment of blessing is depicted as the eighth, it concerns the text fragments in the Apocalypse that follow at the end (7) of one cycle and precede the beginning (1) of the next. For a moment there is no time but eternity and infinity, the sign of which is the eight lying down. Seven stands for a dynamic fullness of a manifestation cycle, in contrast to three which stands for an unchangeable fullness that is always active. (Haich, 1960; Egmond, 1994-1995)
The days of the week
But the seven of us are also reflected in our daily lives in the form of the days of the week. The names of the seven days of the week have an esoteric origin that an outsider will not easily recognize. All the more so because we are used to seeing Sunday as a day of rest and Monday as the beginning of the week, the beginning of the cycle, day1. However, a different arrangement sheds light on a more sublime order. The esoteric order begins with Saturday. Saturday is named after the planet Saturn, which used to be seen as the outer planet of our solar system. Then follow Sunday and Monday. These three days recall very old times that have preceded the current form of our solar system. These ancient precursors of our present solar system are, for example in theosophy and anthroposophy, referred to as Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon respectively. In the case of Old Saturn, matter was not further condensed than heat and the sun and planets, with the exception of an outer ‘planet’ -Saturn-, were still united in one big heat ‘sphere’. Then this creation disappears. Then there has been one out- and inhalation of Brahman, according to Hinduism. Then comes a new exhalation in which light and air from the warmth compact themselves. Two ‘planets’ are now isolated from the solar centre, precursors of Saturn and Jupiter. The earth still remains united with the radiant solar centre. This is the second creation of earth and solar system, called Old Sun. Again everything disappears in the unformed until in a third breath Brahman completes the third creation of earth and solar system, that of the Old Moon. The matter here is further condensed to liquid, to a kind of plant knitting. In this phase, parts of the central sun, various planets and now also the Earth, which however still remains united with the Moon, split off again. These are the three preceding phases of the creation of our planet that we find in the names of the weekdays. Then everything disappears again to emerge transformed at the fourth creation of earth and solar system. Now the current fixed Earth is formed, with the Moon separated from it. Two movements in time are distinguished: a descending condensing and an ascending spiritual movement, expressed in the names of the planets closest to the earth. Since the year 0 we have passed the middle and started the ascending movement. The closest outer planet to the earth is Mars, representing the condensing movement, which can be found in the French Mardi, Mars Day, our Tuesday. The closest inland planet to the earth is Venus. You’d expect to get Venus Day after Mardi, but in the past the name Venus has been exchanged by the occultists with the name Mercury, according to Steiner, to mislead the uninitiated. Our Wednesday in French is called Mercredi, Mercury Day, but that actually means the planet Venus. Mars and Venus together represent the current phase of the solid or fourth creation phase and for our planet Earth. The fourth solid phase is followed by three more phases, after which the creation of man is completed and the role of the earth is completed. Also in the great development steps of earth and solar system the number 7 reigns. The fifth phase of creation is called the Jupiter phase. Then the earth will no longer be solid and the most condensed state will not go beyond the liquid. In French the Thursday is called Jeudi, after Jupiter Day. And the sixth phase of the following earth is called the Venus earth, an earth consisting only of air and light. In French, Vendredi corresponds to Venus Day, but for that we actually have to read Mercury Day, the planet that is closest to the Sun. The seventh phase of the earth then falls outside the scope of the names of the weekdays according to this structure, and is called the Vulcan phase in which the compaction does not go beyond heat. Vulcan day coincides with Saturn day. For example, the names of the weekdays are connected with great esoteric secrets about the macro evolution of earth and man. (Steiner, 1908; Zoeteman, 1989)
The creation cycle and the numbers 1 to 7
The special feature of number seven, which governs developments in time, cannot be understood without taking into account the workings of the numbers preceding the number seven. The numbers 1 to 7 together unfold the cycle of creation, as the example of the names of the weekdays already showed. Let us take a closer look at this.
Number 1
Creation in a new cycle begins with the number 1. In Hebrew, the number 1 is assigned to the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the Aleph, which has the meaning of ‘primal life’, the union with divine life. The number 1 is thus connected to the masculine active, paternal radiance of the divine sun being and it indicates that time is born. In the epistle to the congregation in Ephesians, the beginning of time can be heard in the indication: This is how the seven stars speak in his right hand, who walks between the seven candlesticks. But then later the admonition follows: I have against you that you have given up your first love. And the letter concludes with the promise: Who overcomes I will feed from the tree of life that is in God’s paradise. At the end we are back in the eternity of paradise. Epheze had an ancient wisdom culture with the mystery school of the goddess Diana where once man knew himself to be safe in God. Here the tree of knowledge and the tree of life of love grew equally. But in this first phase, the knowledge-focused soul force begins to dominate over the radiant love power of the tree of life. This is where the fall into matter begins. Man is no longer completely full of the love that flows out of God because he begins to experience himself and nature as independent of God. The letter to Epheze reminds us of the unity that has been lost and calls for us to return to it. Wherever a time circle begins, a new initiative is born from the womb of Mother Nature, the problem of Epheze is experienced again, according to Schult (1976). It stands for the longing for unity with the source from which one has broken out. This longing was most present during the Indian cultural period (ca. 8.000-6.000 B.C.) of which remnants can be found in the Vedas. And it still lives strongly in India.
Number 2
The number 2 refers to the second Hebrew letter Beth, which means “house”, house of the spirit. The house for the sun spirit is the soul, the female passive that receives the divine sun being. The Egyptian initiation knowledge can still be found in the first Tarot images. The name of the Tarot card that belongs to the number 1 is Osiris (the magician), the second card is Isis, the divine mother wisdom (the high priestess), the moon goddess. In the second letter to the congregation of Smyrna this polarity of sun and moon is also expressed. After the leap into matter, death appears as the opposite of radiant solar life. <See, the devil will put some of you in prison, so that you may be tested. </With the devil/satan, the testing counterforce, death makes its appearance. Here we see the battlefield appearing in the human soul, a battle between light and darkness. The darkness in the human soul must be conquered in order to preserve its spirit power, otherwise man runs the risk of losing its spirit core. The purification of the human soul in order to overcome the self-directed urges begins here. And that really is a matter of life or death. For physical death can take away the material body from us, but it is worse when our higher part of beings, our soul, is lost. That is what the Apocalypse calls the second death. In this second phase of the seven-articulated time cycle, the shadows become visible that threaten an initiative born of light as it descends deeper into material reality. It takes courage not to run away from these threats of the ‘house of the spirit impulse’, but to be prepared to take them on. An initiative outgrows the baby phase and is tested for its individuality. In the ancient Persian culture (ca. 4.000-2.000 B.C.) this battle between light and darkness (Ormuzd and Ahriman) was also intensely experienced and it later resonated in the religion of Zarathustra and the Roman Mithrasmysteries.
Number 3
The number 2 refers to the second Hebrew letter Beth, which means “house”, house of the spirit. The house for the sun spirit is the soul, the female passive that receives the divine sun being. The Egyptian initiation knowledge can still be found in the first Tarot images. The name of the Tarot card that belongs to the number 1 is Osiris (the magician), the second card is Isis, the divine mother wisdom (the high priestess), the moon goddess. In the second letter to the congregation of Smyrna this polarity of sun and moon is also expressed. After the leap into matter, death appears as the opposite of radiant solar life. <See, the devil will put some of you in prison, so that you may be tested. </With the devil/satan, the testing counterforce, death makes its appearance. Here we see the battlefield appearing in the human soul, a battle between light and darkness. The darkness in the human soul must be conquered in order to preserve its spirit power, otherwise man runs the risk of losing its spirit core. The purification of the human soul in order to overcome the self-directed urges begins here. And that really is a matter of life or death. For physical death can take away the material body from us, but it is worse when our higher part of beings, our soul, is lost. That is what the Apocalypse calls the second death. In this second phase of the seven-articulated time cycle, the shadows become visible that threaten an initiative born of light as it descends deeper into material reality. It takes courage not to run away from these threats of the ‘house of the spirit impulse’, but to be prepared to take them on. An initiative outgrows the baby phase and is tested for its individuality. In the ancient Persian culture (ca. 4.000-2.000 B.C.) this battle between light and darkness (Ormuzd and Ahriman) was also intensely experienced and it later resonated in the religion of Zarathustra and the Roman Mithrasmysteries.
The number 4
The 4 is the number of the mineral Earth. We find the four in the four space directions (the cube) and the four elements (north-earth, east-air, south-fire, and west-water). The cube with its six planes and its contents already refers to its central role in the construction of the number 7. (Haich, 1960) Furthermore, we find the 4 among the four animals around God’s throne and the four temperaments. The four animals around the throne (man, bull, lion, eagle) are partial aspects of the 12th axis of the zodiac and as one of the four aspects this is predominant in a certain temperament (melancholy man, phlegmatic bull, sanguine lion, choleric eagle). These four animal aspects can also be found in the four evangelists. Man: Matthew-earthly possessions, Taurus: Luke’s healings, Leo: Mark’s soul diseases, Eagle: John-I development). (Steiner, 1924; Dullaart, 2004).
With the number 4 a limit is crossed and something completely new is created. The numbers 1, 2, and 3 have a clear interrelationship; they form a closed whole, a trinity. The fourth Hebrew letter is called Daleth and means ‘gate’ or ‘door’. The gate is the symbol of the threshold between the divine world and the earthly world. The divine trinity enters the self-created world. And the position of the number 4 between the 7 numbers betrays that the 4 of us have ended up in the middle of the cycle and thus at the essence of what is about to happen in this cycle. And that is the birth of the human I, to become aware of standing between the spiritual (inner) and the material (outer) worlds. In the fourth Tarot card this is depicted as the pharaoh or ruler enthroned on a cube symbolizing the elements earth, water, air and fire, while the trinity above the quadrilateral can be found in both arms and head. (Schult, 1976) The essence of the 4 is that the Christ principle, the I-c Principle, descends into man and thus man becomes the Son of God. Christ as Pancreator is also the theme of the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse. The fourth Apocalypse congregation, Thyatira, is an insignificant rural congregation and corresponds to the Greco-Roman cultural period in which Christ, as a sun being and Son of God, embodies himself in Jesus. In the fourth congregation, the love that threatened to extinguish in the first congregation of Ephesians begins again. The gods become human in this fourth cultural period. What was outside of man now comes into man. The kingdom of heaven has come near, has come into man.
The number 5 is called the number of the Christ principle because it unites the four other aspects (the physical, etheric, astral and the lower self or personality) within it. In the Apocalypse the number 5 belongs to the Lamb, the quintessence, the higher itself. It is the number of man (Steiner, 1924). In esoteric schooling, the number 5 is also called the number of evil, because it always opposes the number 4. Number 5 resists the 4 and later on there will be big decisions which lead to a choice for good or evil under number 6. Number 5 refers to the fifth Apocalypse municipality of Sardes, which is therefore also called the place of danger. Can the new seed of the higher Self, which has been laid in man in the fourth phase, blossom and be preserved? In the Hebrew alphabet the fifth letter is He, who means the ‘exhalation’ of God. This divine breath, this prana, carries man within himself and unites him with God. The fifth Tarot card is called the high priest. The high priest is the messenger and alarm clock of the breath that God breathed into Adam. The High Priest holds the key in his hand and, as a hierophile, opens to the disciple the secrets that are hidden from the man who is bound to sensory perception. (Schult, 1976) The fifth chapter of the Apocalypse describes the vision of the Lamb and the sevenfold sealed book, and thus the true High Priest, who re-experiences the divine breath in all men. The fact that Sardes is a place of danger is also evident from the structure of the letter to this congregation, which does not begin with a praise but directly with an exhortation. I know your works, that you have the name that you live, and you are dead. Until the fourth Greco-Roman cultural period, life and death forces kept each other in balance, but the next three cultural periods are dominated by death forces (Schult, 1976), starting in the fifth, the current Germanic-Anglo-Saxon cultural period. The development of the intellect and individualization bind man more and more to the outer world. As a result, the forces of spiritual life are becoming weaker and weaker. This results in the verdict: I have not found your works full-fledged for my God. But in the fifth phase there is also a new promising phenomenon. Those are the ones who have cleansed their adrift lives. Out of the cleansed soul the spirit soul, the Manas, is formed. In the Apocalypse these people of the new age are welcomed.
The number 6
The sixth Tarot card is called temptation or decision. The decision goes between sensual lust or peace of mind. We have come to a higher form of the contrast between light-dark and spiritual-matter, which we came across in Smyrna. Now man is ready to bridge the contradiction through higher love, based on self-consciousness. The sixth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the Waw meaning hook, according to the shape of the letter, but the letter originally depicted a ‘snake’. In ancient Egypt, the serpent was a sign for the initiator, but at the same time it indicated desires and sex. The word six (six, sechs) also contains a reference to sex. Six is about the decision, the separation between sensual and heavenly love. The sixth chapter of the Apocalypse begins with the Lamb opening the first six stamps of the book. Here begins the path of initiation. At the same time this door is a reference to the number 4, the letter Daleth which meant door or gate as we saw it. The door is the I of man who opens himself to the divine. The sixth letter is sent to the congregation of Philadelphia, which in the time of the Apocalypse was written was frequently plagued by earthquakes that caused death and destruction. The future (Slavic) cultural period indicated by this will unfold in the present millennium and will last up to about 4,000 years. Philadelphia owes its name to the founder of King Attalos Philadelphos (200-138 BC). This name means brotherly love, which was related to the love that the king felt for his brother Eumenes II. The Christian congregation in Philadelphia unfolded the essence of Christianity most completely (Schult, 1976). While the purification of thought through the awakening of higher consciousness is the main theme in Sardes, in Philadelphia the purification of feeling through the revival of divine love is central. The decision that falls into the sixth phase of an initiative requires a struggle for life and death. Fight over the survival of the initiative as intended. It can be compared to the cliffhanger in a film script in which the hero and the anti-hero finally take on each other in a final battle and one of the two has to pay for it with death. In addition, all the dark forces with their refinement and power come to fruition in order to sow fear and illusions. Only discernment, courage and selfless love bring victory. Because you kept my admonishing word, to be patient just like me, I will keep you in the hour of temptation. </Although the sixth phase of Philadelphia gives the prospect of participating in the next phase of development, it is at the same time the decisive phase in which man and his initiative are most deeply tempted and the good ones are separated from the evil ones. Schult (1976) considers the forerunners of the Philadelphia man to be, for example, Joan of Arc, Christiaan Rozenkreutz, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Paracelsus, Johannes Kepler, Jakob Böhme, Fra Angelico, Raffael and Michelangelo.
The number 7
At number seven, the cycle comes to an end. After the I in the 4th phase has descended as a germ, in the three following phases its fermenting effect has ever more profound consequences. First the thinking has been transformed so that from the passionate soul the cleansed soul, the Manas or the Higher Self, was formed in the Sardinian period. Man has become wise by connecting knowledge and love. During the Philadelphia period, the I was breathed in with divine love and the life force was transformed by the I into the Buddhi, the spirit of life. Now the wise and selfless man can also become an instrument for the divine life force and help to heal the causes of illness. And in the seventh congregation of Laodicea, man’s will is purified to Atman, a universal service to the achievement of the divine purpose in creation. The will has an impact on the material existence. The seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the Zajin, also refers to this, according to Schult (1976). Zajin means ‘arrow’, the arrow of the spirit with which the centre of existence is affected. The divine spark in man merges with the divine centre of the world. The seventh map of the Tarot showing the ‘chariot’ also indicates the triumph of the spirit. God is triumphantly leading his creation towards perfection. The chariot is pulled by a white and a black sphinx. The good and the evil powers must serve the realisation of God’s world plan. Within the Apocalypse there is a relation with the seventh chapter where the solar angel Michael shows the 12 x 12,000 seals when the seventh seal is unlocked. They are taken to their final destination.