A Short Treatise
on The Holy Trinity
by Rick Distasi
From 'The Book of Revelation and the work of the priest' lecture cycle. Lectures to the priests of the Christian Community Church.
Lecture Ten Dornach, 14 September 1924
Rudolf Steiner Press (1998)
pages 137-138:
"The apocalyptist sees the grand picture of the heavens opening (Rev. 19:11).On a white horse there rides towards him a power about whom the apocalyptist speaks, and by the way he speaks he shows that he bears the trichotomy of the Godhead not only in his understanding, in his intellect, but also in his whole human being. The way he speaks shows how he knows
with his whole soul that the three Persons are three forms of the One God and that if you go beyond the physical world you cannot speak of the one or the other, for they merge into each other. Placed into the physical world, however, the picture shows three Persons, so that we have to distinguish between the Father God, who is at the foundation of all natural facts including those that work into human nature, the Son God,who has to do with all that leads into freedom of soul experience, and the Spirit God, who lives in a spiritual, cosmic order that is far away from nature, entirely foreign to nature. Here on the physical plane these three Persons appear thus sharply differentiated. On stepping across the threshold to the spiritual world, the human being enters a condition I have described in my book 'Knowledge of the Higher Worlds', a condition in which he becomes structured into three beings,so that thinking, feeling and will each attain a degree autonomy. In
contrast to this, when we leave the physical plane and arrive in the higher worlds we see the Threefold God coming towards us more and more as One God. It is with this especially in mind that we must read the Book of Revelation. We must not follow the pattern of the physical world and distinguish between Father God, Son God and Spirit God."
After reading this I'm still not sure as to whether Steiner means three Beings to the Trinity or three aspects of One Being. Some would interpret the term 'Three Persons' as three Beings. Are we a reflection of the Trinity 'in reverse'? When we cross over the threshold to the spiritual world we are no longer as one being when in the physical world. We are then separated into three aspects (thinking, feeling and will) in the spiritual world while the Trinity is, for the sake of argument, seen as three beings or
aspects in the physical world that become one Being (with three aspects) in the spiritual world.
I had said here that I was not sure about the question of three Beings of the Trinity or Three Aspects of ONE Being. Later I did come to think that the Trinity is of three Beings after I received a transcription from a letter from a friend on this very topic which was an excerpt from a private lecture from Steiner.
Let me refer to a letter that I received from a friend about this very topic which we also discussed at some length. He contacted an individual who lives near the Goetheanum on this question. She sent
him what she had on the topic. It is supposed to be a lecture that is one of several (I believe) that were not to be published for quite some time;
at least this is how I understand it. It is purportedly from a lecture that was a closed lecture "... to pupils of the School of Spiritual Science where no one was allowed to record anything." The notes came later after the lecture when the students would get together and compare and exchange notes. The notes are from a lecture on Dec. 18th. 1906 in Berlin. (Was the School of Spiritual Science even established then?). He may be referring to Steiner's closest students at that time which later was translated into the School of Spiritual Science. He writes in the letter quoting Steiner:
The Three Logoi: ..."in fact, no man whose senses for the higher worlds are not awakened can have a proper Vorstellung [Imagination] of the being of the three Logoi. But, by evoking right pictures in the soul one may prepare it for right seeing in the future. All spiritual (things) coin itself also in the physical, so we want to look at that which corresponds to those high forces in the physical. At the beginning of the world the first Logos began to emanate His own being; there a 'fragrance' filled the cosmos. The world- aroma is our first Logos. All physical origins [were] in His body. He is the Aroma of the World. Then the second Logos began to emanate and wove through the world-aroma with pictures and forms. The world began to form itself;light and colors flashed up. Then the world was sounded through by the third Logos... The world-aroma flows through space; magnificent forms flash [flare] up, and this gleaming, fragrance exhaling world is flowed through by the sounds
of the third Logos... (I'm assuming that this was all before the Saturn Period). When our planetary chain [row] came to light, at the same time the emanation of the third Logos began, its sounds [will have] ceased to sound when our planet-chain will have reached the end of evolution. Yet the waves of the two other Logoi came to us from earlier world-evolutions. Their waves of streaming have a longer duration than the one of the third Logos. Still, before the emanation of the second Logos has died away, (which came over from before Saturn and died out either around the Sun or Moon Periods where it then began a new emanation and became part of this planetary chain while the world-aroma [first Logos] started long before Saturn and won't die out until after the Earth Period possibly around Jupiter where it too will start a new emanation) a new emanation began, this (new) emanation (of the second Logos ) is the one that actually belongs to our planetary system. Long after the new second Logos has died away and begins his new emanation which actually belongs to our planetary system..." (I'm not sure where this last sentence was headed as the notes suddenly dropped off). He also said that there was a drawing which added with the letter ( I can't reproduce it here) but he had to admit that it was very difficult to decipher and when I looked at it I could not begin to really know when one Being began its emanation (Saturn, Sun ...?) and when a particular being would end its emanation. Their emanations seem to cross over each other though they begin and end at different times (different Planetary Periods) such that we have Three Logoi Beings currently at work (emanating themselves in our planetary system during the Earth Period). From the drawing it seems that the third Logos the being of sound and movement) begins in the Period of Saturn and
ends with the Period of Vulcan. The drawing is very unclear but my best guess and his is that the first two Logoi came from previous chains of Planetary Epochs as he puts it. He sees Christ as the Third Logos Who began on Saturn and ends on Vulcan ("I AM with you always even unto the end of the Age.").
This could explain why it was this particular Logos that came down to earth to redirect the path of human-earthly evolution. It is this Logos that is most intimately connected to our evolution(beginning Its course of Logos activity with our own beginnings on the Saturn Period). So then are there Three Logoi in the Holy Trinity that appear as One
Being functioning as a singular, unitary consciousness in the spiritual world?
First Logos: Fragrance/ Matter/ primal-wisdom/ infinity (unendlessness)
Second Logos:
Light/
Form/
primal-bliss/
primal-beauty
Third Logos:
Sound/
Movement/
peace/
blessing (secondlessness)
As a final analysis of the above I would interpret the opening verses of the Gospel of John as the following: "In the beginning (the Saturn Period) was the WORD (the beginning of the emanation of the Third Logos [the Christ Being] as we discussed earlier) and the WORD was with GOD (the composite of all three LOGOI as a singular unitary consciousness) and the WORD (Christ) was (a) GOD. I added the indefinite article (a) to the verse as does Steiner also. Steiner does reword it: "...and the WORD was 'a' GOD." This, as I see it, says that GOD is a composite of three supra-hierarchical beings whose regency is this particular planetary system.
Rick Distasi [2001]
