The Apocalypse of John

Glossary Collection · 20 Terms

The Book of Revelation read as an initiation document: the seven seals, trumpets and bowls, the two beasts and 666, the New Jerusalem (GA 104). Part of Thalira's Anthroposophical Glossary of 515 terms, and companion to the in-depth guide Anthroposophy.

Michael and the Dragon

The war in heaven of Revelation 12, read by Steiner as the Archangel Michael overcoming the dragon and chaining the powers opposed to the Christ-Sun.

The Abyss

In Steiner's reading of Revelation, the bottomless pit below the spiritualizing earth into which souls that reject the Christ-impulse sink, and from which the beast climbs.

The Apocalypse of John

The Book of Revelation read by Steiner as a written record of Christian initiation, not a forecast of literal catastrophe.

The Letter to Ephesus

The first of the Apocalypse's seven letters, which Steiner read as the ancient Indian epoch, the dawn of post-Atlantean culture, praised for its works yet warned that it has left its first love.

The Letter to Laodicea

The seventh message in Revelation, which Steiner reads as the last culture-epoch: the lukewarm age sunk in matter, facing the War of All against All.

The Letter to Philadelphia

The sixth Revelation letter, which Steiner reads as the future epoch of brotherly love, the church of the open door that none can shut.

The New Jerusalem

Steiner's reading of the holy city of Revelation 21 as the future Jupiter embodiment of earth, the spiritualized planet humanity is even now preparing.

The Number of the Beast

In Steiner's reading, 666 is the cipher of Sorath, the Sun-Demon who opposes the Christ-Sun and tempts humanity to harden into matter.

The Riders of the Apocalypse

The four horsemen of the opened seals, read by Steiner as the unsealing of history, where each prepared culture-epoch rides forth to be made visible.

The Second Death

The stripping-away of the etheric body from a soul that has hardened against the spirit, suffered only by those who never received the Christ-principle.

The Seven Bowls of Wrath

The final apocalyptic image in which divine wrath pours out upon a humanity hardened into matter, casting the unredeemed off as husks at evolution's close.

The Seven Churches

The seven post-Atlantean culture-epochs, addressed in Revelation as seven letters running from Ephesus to Laodicea.

The Seven Seals

The picture-world of Revelation that Steiner read as the astral stage of initiation, where the spiritual world first speaks to the seer in images.

The Seven Spirits of God

The seven creative powers before the throne in Revelation, which Steiner reads as the seven Elohim, the Sun-spirits whose deeds the seven stars record.

The Seven Trumpets

Steiner's reading of Revelation's trumpet-blasts as the tones of the spirit-world, Devachanic music sounding the last great epoch of earth-evolution.

The Son of Man

The opening vision of Revelation: Christ among seven candlesticks, seven stars in his hand, a two-edged sword from his mouth, beheld as the awakened human I.

The Sun-Clothed Woman

The Revelation 12 figure robed in the sun whom Steiner reads as the soul giving birth to the higher I, the self that the dragon cannot devour.

The Thousand Years

Steiner's reading of Revelation's millennium: the first resurrection, when souls joined to Christ live on in a spiritualized earth while the dragon lies bound.

The Two Beasts

The beast from the sea and the beast from the earth in Revelation 13, read by Steiner as a twofold adversary of humanity, later named Lucifer and Ahriman.

The Whore of Babylon

Steiner's picture of spiritual force turned downward and married to dead matter: the dark counterpart of the marriage of the Lamb.