עברית Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon has been a pathfinder and a door-opener for the anthroposophical movement for thirty years now. His unique place has been evident in three areas of work: his accounts of spiritual developments since the death of Rudolf Steiner in 1925, his broad penetration of contemporary culture beyond the anthroposophical movement, and his demonstration of paths of advanced personal development.
The New Experience of the Supersensible
The Twilight and Resurrection of Humanity
The History of the Michaelic Movement since the Death of Rudolf Steiner
An Esoteric Study
by Yeshayahu (Jesaiah) Ben-Aharon.
Temple Lodge Publishing, 2020; 338 pp.
Review by John Beck
“Spiritual investigation, when earnestly pursued, is not a matter of juggling with ideas or words but works its way into the actual sphere where the spiritual world becomes perceptible”.
—Rudolf Steiner, 9 Oktober 1918, GA 182.
Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon has been a pathfinder and a door-opener for the anthroposophical movement for thirty years now. His unique place has been evident in three areas of work: his accounts of spiritual developments since the death of Rudolf Steiner in 1925, his broad penetration of contemporary culture beyond the anthroposophical movement, and his demonstration of paths of advanced personal development.
David Adams reviewed his 2016 book Cognitive Yoga: Making Yourself a New Etheric Body and Individuality in the spring 2018 being human, calling it “a most extraordinary book—probably the most extraordinary book that has been written within anthroposophy since the original work of Rudolf Steiner.” Now the Twilight and Resurrection of Humanity brings into focus two more elements: further spiritual timelines of the 21st century, and community development as a necessary support for individual progress.
Toward 2023
We now approach the hundredth anniversary of the Christmas Foundation Conference, often referring to our plans as a “celebration.” Most of our 2023, however, might recall the walk down the hill on January 1, 1923, from the embers of the first Goetheanum, and the year of struggle that followed to help young and old members understand each other. There is also the purported poisoning of Steiner at the end of the conference; the extraordinary blaze of inspirations afterward, and the sharing up to mid-September 1924; then six-month convalescence at the foot of the statue of the “representative of humanity” and the opposing powers; and the departure of Rudolf Steiner in early 1925, twelve years earlier, he said, than his karma would have allowed. Twelve years that would have taken him to the “reappearance” in 1933, and beyond.
To properly celebrate Steiner’s last twenty-seven months we should have some sense of where anthroposo- phy has to go in this next hundred years. Extraordinary good work has been done in so many particular areas, but Ben-Aharon remains the only researcher I know who has a view both comprehensive and prospective.
Steiner advised us that when we form a picture, even if we are unsure of its correctness, our etheric body will work to perfect it. The Twilight and Resurrection of Hu- manity would be good food for any healthy etheric body!