Finding the essence of spiritual streams

I’ve been wanting to make this video for about a month but the time is pressing.

(That’s a book of Revelation joke.)

From Emil Bock’s The Apocalypse of St John:

“If we translate the sentence ὁ καιρὸς ἐγγύς (ho kairos engys) as ‘the time is at hand’, we are likely to misunderstand it seriously. It would be more correct to say ‘the time is limited—time presses.’ The sentence is indeed a description of how the inner tempo, the spiritual vigour of the age will be different when mankind enters the apocalyptic era.”

In these videos, I’m making presentations that are related to anthroposophy and aim to place it in a contemporary context for people who might not be familiar with the lingo.

Language changes significantly over time. Words change which “thing-in-itself” they point to as the generations roll by. Because of this, it can be very easy to lose track of the actual spiritual stream of interest.

To use an exoteric example: There are two easily recognized political parties in the US. Or rather, the names are easy to recognize. But that name today points to what the party does today. It takes conscientiousness to remember that 25 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 years ago: that same name pointed to something different, to a different set of political objectives.

The name points to the thing-in-itself today, but the thing-in-itself is always moving. So without discernment, you can lose track of what you actually care about.

The same thing happens to spiritual streams. Freemasonry started some hundreds of years ago as one thing, and it became another thing over time. Some of the flavor remains, but the power has moved, transformed, or been corrupted. The same could be said of so many essences.

This is hardly a conclusive video. I could spend hours trying to discern where these streams have gone over the past fifty or hundred years—and my friends and family get to listen to that!—but this video sets up the question.