There is much talk on the Internet and elsewhere of the expected arrival of the 'Antichrist' on earth in the near future. Our idea of the 'Antichrist' is however quite nebulous - it is usually conceived simply as a being who represents the opposite of what Christ Is. But this being is not the one that is incarnating, as I shall explain.
From the occult standpoint the being who is incarnating is one of the two tempters of men.
An important occult law is that just as everything in the physical world has its opposite, so in the spirit is the principle of threefoldness. The angelic hierarchies are arranged in three groups of three (Angels, Archangels, Archai - Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes - Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim), and just as there is the triune godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), so is there a trinity of evil. At its apex is the antichrist in the proper sense of the word - the Sorathic power, the Sun-demon - who desires to destroy man completely, physically and spiritually.
'Beneath' Sorath are the two temptors of man, Lucifer - the light-bearer, the Serpent - and Ahriman - the cold, dark Satanic power, the Hound, the Lion. The temptors do not wish (if wish is the right word) to destroy man, they wish for man to follow their lead and to pursue their plans for man.
If the tempters are confronted consciously, then, in contrast to our encounters with the Sorathic power, we may even derive positive things from them, but we must be aware from whence these things originated and, thus, of the danger that they will draw us away from our rightful pursuits.
Lucifer is the proud spirit, who lures man away from the earth and away from mankind's earthly tasks. Lucifer encourages man to rely on himself and his own resources in the search for truth - which often leads the seeker on this path into subjective forms of mysticism and into a retreat from the outer world and from other human beings. Lucifer encourages man to stride out and act as an individual; without his influence man would never have felt the urge to free. Initially this is the 'rebellion', the temptation to turn one's back on the intentions of the spirit world towards man and to stride out as an individual.
Ahriman, on the other hand, wishes to chain man to the earth. He is in one sense the guiding spirit of our civilization. He encourages us to apply our powers of thought to the search for ways to improve our earthly existence - the inventions of modern technology, for example. Through Ahriman's influence our thoughts, instead of lifting us into the spiritual world, fetter us to earthly concerns.
Ahriman is the spirit of deception and lies, who wishes for man to fall into error and who tempts us to believe that what we experience around us with our earthly senses is the only reality. He is also, in a sense, the lord of money, who encourages the pursuit of temporal riches. Followers of Ahriman pursue the acquisition of earthly powers and are prepared to do anything to acquire and maintain those powers.
It is Ahriman who is to incarnate in the near future on earth. Although it must be added that the Luciferic and Sorathic powers will assist the Ahrimanic power to the extent which it furthers their own aims.
It is likely, although not necessarily so, that he will fully incarnate in a suitably prepared human body when that body is around thirty years of age in a process similar to the baptism of Jesus of Nazareth, which allowed the Christ to walk on earth amongst men for three years. His fully conscious human followers, the genuine black magicians,will prepare this human vessel, possibly several potential vessels, in anticipation of his incarnation. If this is the case then the human spirit within the human vessel to be used by Ahriman will withdraw itself as a sacrifice (ie. the person will be a follower of Ahriman, a 'Satanist').
Again it must be emphasized, that man does not stand in direct opposition to the two temptors, he stands as the balance between the two extremes. The most important thing is recognize beings for what they are, and not to be deceived as to their true nature, and to use them and what they offer consciously, rather than allow them to use us as pawns in the pursuit of their inhuman aims. The most appropriate example of this is the internet itself which although it relies on technology, the creation of which was inspired by ahrimanic concerns regarding warfare, which relies on ahrimanic technology and which creates a web of artificial intelligence over the globe, is nonetheless a great medium for reaching large numbers of people and helping to guide them away from the ahrimanic temptation. (See my post entitled 'Internet as Collective Mind')
Ahriman, being the great deceiver, presumably wishes to be hailed as the saviour of mankind, the returning Christ, and the creator of an earthly paradise. All this to fool man in to surrendering his greatest gift - the possibility to grow towards individual spiritual freedom. That is why we should not follow the luciferic path of fleeing the earth and seeking premature release from this "valley of tears", as only on earth can we acquire freedom, only in a world where there exists the possibility to knowingly do wrong can we freely do good, and wrong can only exist in a world which is not real, a world which hides the spiritual and which has become detached, in one sense, from the spiritual world and its laws.
However, although the world is, in one sense, detached from the spirit, spiritual impulses and beings still influence events on earth and events of earth have their repercussions in the spiritual world. It is because of this that we should strive to understand some of the non-human beings and forces and not simply give them general labels, such as 'antichrist'. If we do not strive to understand and to reveal the hitherto occult aspects of existence, then our explanations of life will be forever inadequate and we are likely to find ourselves living unfulfilling lives. Importantly, we will also risk being at the mercy of corrupt secret societies which hide in the background and which are aware of the occult aspects of existence and which strive to keep them exactly that - occult, hidden from the masses of mankind. If they can keep a monopoly on that knowledge then they can more easily maintain their power as they can use devices to influence the subconscious of man, knowing that the conscious mind will not realise that the individual is being remotely manipulated.
Remember, there is ultimately there can only be one body of truth as knowledge. It is the same knowledge that is obtained whether one pursues the left-hand path or the right-hand path. On an individual level it only has positive meaning if that knowledge is struggled for and made one's own. It is the search for truth, the impulse for truth which is important in this context; one grows into a more moral being not through possession of the truth as knowledge, but through the development of a healthy instinct for truth, a desire to obtain and to share the truth with one's fellow human beings and not to spread falsehood and lies. It is in the interests of corrupt individuals to hide the truth from others as the fact that their knowledge is kept occult allows them to deceive and manipulate others. This is why we are no longer encouraged to seek truth; since the myth that science held all the answers has long been dispelled by chaos theory and such like, it is now scepticism which is promoted - there is no point seeking truth as there is no truth, all is relative, and even if there was such a thing as truth man lacks the faculties to find it. There most biting tool is mockery, but one must summon the courage to stand up and be counted!
A failure to comprehend clearly enough that there is a multitude of differentiated spiritual beings and not simply a 'spiritual world', has been the downfall even of people with good intentions, such as Annie Besant. In the early twentieth century she promoted a boy (Jiddu Krishnamurti) whom she and Charles Leadbeater had 'discovered' in India as the returned Christ (who she believed was identical with the Maitreya). It is understood that Annie believed that by creating the right conditions she could induce the Christ spirit to incarnate in this human vessel. It is alleged that she proposed to Rudolf Steiner that if he would proclaim with her that the boy was Christ then she would proclaim him as the reincarnation of John the Baptist (an appeal to spiritual egotism). Steiner's response to the Krisnamurti affair was to break with the Theosophical movement completely. The chosen vessel himself, had the courage in 1929 to dissolve the Order created to pronounce 'his coming' to the world and to declare "You can form other organisations and expect someone else. With that I am not concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those cages. My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free." Jiddu himself was in touch with the key demand of the age - that man must pursue freedom, that one should recognize the workings of the spirit and pursue the good as a result of a free and conscious decision of the individual.
The next post contains a lecture by Rudolf Steiner on the incarnation of Ahriman, but there are two points which should be noted first, regarding the fact that some people seem to believe that we are facing the imminent end of the world and the return of Christ.
1 We are not approaching the end of the world. The physical earth is 'dying', and these forces of destruction in the heart of matter has become manifest in this century through the splitting of the atom. However, the earth has been dying for some time and this is a process which all physical/temporal bodies naturally go through and it will take a long time to complete. The spiritual foundations of the earth, and ourselves as spirits, will of course endure regardless of what happens to the physical realm.
Is it in Ahriman's interest to destroy what is essentially his kingdom? Equally for those in control of the world's resources and many of the world's inhabitants there is no real incentive to destroy it completely. And although a population reduction may be welcome to these people, in the sense that it will be easier to maintain control, it also gives them more power if they are deceiving billions of people rather than millions (the ideal of the Pyramid structure of power).
2 Steiner went to great lengths to emphasize that Christ will not return in a physical body, that Christ's Incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth was a one-off event and the focal point of the whole history of the earth. His Life and Death is a unique event in world history and he is has no need to 'return' as since Golgotha Christ has been ever present, as He has united Himself with the future of mankind and of the earth - "I am with you always, until the end of time". From 1933 humans can consciously experience Christ again, this time in the etheric realm (the realm of Life), but this is a soul experience, experienced by the individual human being; a personal revelation of Christ, akin to that of Paul on the road to Damascus.
This is important to bear in mind, as Ahriman's appearance may well be preceded by a man who acts out mankind's traditional idea of the antichrist (a Hitler-esque figure hell-bent on war and destruction), so that Ahriman can play out man's earthbound image of Christ - the bringer of peace on earth, the performer of miracles, the healer, not of the soul, but of the physical body, the prolonger of earthly life. Maybe this is why there are rumours of cancer cures and the like being suppressed, so that Ahriman may be credited with the creation of these balms, which he can administer to his enraptured audience. "What gains a man if he has a healthy body, but has lost his soul?". It is often through the opposition of the body that we become conscious of the spirit - brain cells are destroyed every day without replacement so that we may maintain our consciousness of our existence on earth. It is the willingness of enlightened individuals, such as Giordano Bruno, to accept death when earthly powers rule against them, which helps dispel the myth that our existence ends with death. To be born in this world we must die to the world of the spirit; when we die in this world we are reborn into our spiritual home.
Ultimately all the deception and lies of our age, along with the drive towards one world government, one world religion, etc., and the hidden and intense connivings of the corrupt secret societies are being carried out to prepare suitable conditions for the incarnation of Ahriman/Satan
Links:
Pictorial representation of Man standing between Lucifer and Ahriman, pictures of the two temptors and explanation of the statue.
http://www.geocities.com/eternalindividual/Pics1.htm
Jiddu Krishnamurti's speech of 1929
http://www.geocities.com/eternalindividual/jiddu1.html
