Marcus Aurelius, born the year after the Roman historian, Cornelius Tacitus died in 120, was someone who came to the emperorship of Rome based on what was passing through the Greek philosophers as a remembrance, and an ideal. Thus, he was a good guy, who was duly influenced by the forces of the gnosis that had come down from the spiritual worlds about the Christ Event on Earth. You see, when Christ incarnated on Earth for just three years in order to save the Earth for its future, which has now extended some two thousand years, there were human incarnations taking place that had experienced the approach of the Christ to Earth, and then witnessed its actual occurrence even before they were born. So, when they were born on Earth, they could be a representative of Christ with the conviction of their pre-earthly experience in which they also experienced His approach. Marcus Aurelius was one of these, and this is especially important because he became a Roman Emperor.
I have to marvel at how you know these things, Max. Your own book has obviously served you well. Mine did not find favor with those it was solicited to, wherein a more occult foundation and yielding was offered. You obviously speak between the lines, and this is your gift. You made it with an ingenuity that now has to be explained. Please consider that because the work of Rudolf Steiner has to come forth, full frontal at this time.
I am impressed by these "Meditations", which were compiled while Marcus Aurelius was out in the field, leading his Empire as a kind of Philosopher-King, as you indicate. He was the last of the so-called, Five Good Emperors, and these Meditations came to comprise some 12 volumes, and indicating a fine and studious mind of the Greek persuasion. My intuition tells me that it was his occupation of the region of the Danube that opened up this philosophical cast of mind, and he would die after 19 years as the last of the Good Emperors near Vienna, Austria, in March of 180.
I know that Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman historian, c., 56 -120, and he left accounts of the Roman Emperors, most bad, but then some good, beginning with Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian. As a historian, Tacitus is most famous for going to Germany in order to conduct an ethnographic study of the region, c. 83-95. He then wrote a monograph about it, entitled: Germania, which was required reading when Rudolf Steiner attended the Real Schule in Wiener-Neustadt, Austria, which was his middle school education. Steiner would go on to speak about this important work of Tacitus later, when he was able to trace its descriptions of the early German tribes and their characteristics. This is how Steiner got the feel for the unique destiny of the German Folk Soul, which would begin to come forth in a particular way in the 13th century.
Getting back to Marcus Aurelius, we truly have a model of a great leader who remained dedicated to truth and knowledge without compromise, it seems. He didn't die in Rome, with pomp and ceremony. He died near Vienna, Austria. The modern age finds another figure with parallel lines of development. He would also produce keen 'meditations' over a span of years, while serving the cause of a larger production. Owen Barfield would pay particular attention to him.
Max, thanks for bringing up Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. I had never studied him before, and I really hope you teach this stuff to your students, because it is first-rate. It leads to expanded knowledge for those with finesse. They are the only one's who can really appreciate.
yes, as Schiller said, "to love wisdom, they must already be wise." more proverbially, "you can lead a horse to water, but only God can make him drink." even if not everyone will take it up, it's certainly not my place to withhold any of the knowledge from this treasury.
Absolutely true. I can liken my work to Aurelius's Meditations. They were for his personal use, as inspirations for the duties in support of being an Emperor, one of the good one's, in difficult times. Being in Central Europe, along the Danube River for those years in the 70's of the 2nd century, brought to him insights that had a higher source of wisdom. The Greek age was perceived as a living embodiment.
You see, I know a lot about Tacitus, who was a Roman historian/politician in the era of rather infamous Roman Emperors. Tacitus is famous for saying that he remembered that a band of followers of Jesus lived on a side street in Rome, and this is considered to be one of the few pieces of evidence that Jesus actually lived. Such are the paltry remains of external proofs that had even the eminent theologian, Adolf Harnack, saying that the proofs of the existence of Jesus amounts to a 'quarto page'. Rudolf Steiner felt that if supposedly reputable theologians followed the line of thinking of Harnack concerning Christ and Christianity, then we were in trouble. Tacitus is known for writing an ethnographic study of Germany, "Germania", many years before Marcus Aurelius went there to help preserve the Empire. Thus, we know that meditative reflections in foreign territories can be enlightening.
My very strong impression has related Marcus Aurelius to another figure, more recent to history, who would enter foreign lands and receive these same strong impressions of meditative quality. This was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who was a Jesuit priest who was on the frontlines of WW I in North Africa. He wanted a rifle, but the Jesuits forbade it, and so he was defenseless; a medic and stretcher-bearer only. His strength, faith and conviction came from only one source; "La Vie Cosmique", The Cosmic Life.
Many years in China only increased his faith, hope, belief, and certitude of an organized system of spiritual evolution. His "Meditations" had to wait until his death in 1955 before they could be published.
Marcus Aurelius, born the year after the Roman historian, Cornelius Tacitus died in 120, was someone who came to the emperorship of Rome based on what was passing through the Greek philosophers as a remembrance, and an ideal. Thus, he was a good guy, who was duly influenced by the forces of the gnosis that had come down from the spiritual worlds about the Christ Event on Earth. You see, when Christ incarnated on Earth for just three years in order to save the Earth for its future, which has now extended some two thousand years, there were human incarnations taking place that had experienced the approach of the Christ to Earth, and then witnessed its actual occurrence even before they were born. So, when they were born on Earth, they could be a representative of Christ with the conviction of their pre-earthly experience in which they also experienced His approach. Marcus Aurelius was one of these, and this is especially important because he became a Roman Emperor.
I have to marvel at how you know these things, Max. Your own book has obviously served you well. Mine did not find favor with those it was solicited to, wherein a more occult foundation and yielding was offered. You obviously speak between the lines, and this is your gift. You made it with an ingenuity that now has to be explained. Please consider that because the work of Rudolf Steiner has to come forth, full frontal at this time.
I am impressed by these "Meditations", which were compiled while Marcus Aurelius was out in the field, leading his Empire as a kind of Philosopher-King, as you indicate. He was the last of the so-called, Five Good Emperors, and these Meditations came to comprise some 12 volumes, and indicating a fine and studious mind of the Greek persuasion. My intuition tells me that it was his occupation of the region of the Danube that opened up this philosophical cast of mind, and he would die after 19 years as the last of the Good Emperors near Vienna, Austria, in March of 180.
I know that Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman historian, c., 56 -120, and he left accounts of the Roman Emperors, most bad, but then some good, beginning with Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian. As a historian, Tacitus is most famous for going to Germany in order to conduct an ethnographic study of the region, c. 83-95. He then wrote a monograph about it, entitled: Germania, which was required reading when Rudolf Steiner attended the Real Schule in Wiener-Neustadt, Austria, which was his middle school education. Steiner would go on to speak about this important work of Tacitus later, when he was able to trace its descriptions of the early German tribes and their characteristics. This is how Steiner got the feel for the unique destiny of the German Folk Soul, which would begin to come forth in a particular way in the 13th century.
Getting back to Marcus Aurelius, we truly have a model of a great leader who remained dedicated to truth and knowledge without compromise, it seems. He didn't die in Rome, with pomp and ceremony. He died near Vienna, Austria. The modern age finds another figure with parallel lines of development. He would also produce keen 'meditations' over a span of years, while serving the cause of a larger production. Owen Barfield would pay particular attention to him.
Max, thanks for bringing up Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. I had never studied him before, and I really hope you teach this stuff to your students, because it is first-rate. It leads to expanded knowledge for those with finesse. They are the only one's who can really appreciate.
yes, as Schiller said, "to love wisdom, they must already be wise." more proverbially, "you can lead a horse to water, but only God can make him drink." even if not everyone will take it up, it's certainly not my place to withhold any of the knowledge from this treasury.
Absolutely true. I can liken my work to Aurelius's Meditations. They were for his personal use, as inspirations for the duties in support of being an Emperor, one of the good one's, in difficult times. Being in Central Europe, along the Danube River for those years in the 70's of the 2nd century, brought to him insights that had a higher source of wisdom. The Greek age was perceived as a living embodiment.
You see, I know a lot about Tacitus, who was a Roman historian/politician in the era of rather infamous Roman Emperors. Tacitus is famous for saying that he remembered that a band of followers of Jesus lived on a side street in Rome, and this is considered to be one of the few pieces of evidence that Jesus actually lived. Such are the paltry remains of external proofs that had even the eminent theologian, Adolf Harnack, saying that the proofs of the existence of Jesus amounts to a 'quarto page'. Rudolf Steiner felt that if supposedly reputable theologians followed the line of thinking of Harnack concerning Christ and Christianity, then we were in trouble. Tacitus is known for writing an ethnographic study of Germany, "Germania", many years before Marcus Aurelius went there to help preserve the Empire. Thus, we know that meditative reflections in foreign territories can be enlightening.
My very strong impression has related Marcus Aurelius to another figure, more recent to history, who would enter foreign lands and receive these same strong impressions of meditative quality. This was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who was a Jesuit priest who was on the frontlines of WW I in North Africa. He wanted a rifle, but the Jesuits forbade it, and so he was defenseless; a medic and stretcher-bearer only. His strength, faith and conviction came from only one source; "La Vie Cosmique", The Cosmic Life.
Many years in China only increased his faith, hope, belief, and certitude of an organized system of spiritual evolution. His "Meditations" had to wait until his death in 1955 before they could be published.